Dubbo CYMS coach Shawn Townsend was forced to admit "the better side lost" after the Fishies scored a scrappy Peter McDonald Premiership win at Wellington on Sunday.
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CYMS ran out at Kennard Park as overwhelming favourites against a Cowboys side which failed to win a match in the first half of the season.
The Fishies managed to get the job done, winning 24-14, but it was far from a convincing performance from the Group 11 pool leaders.
"In the end, the better side lost," Townsend said.
"We weren't worried about the score-line. We just wanted to work on the good style footy we want to play and we didn't do that.
"We put a bit of pressure on ourselves with the amount of ball we dropped and they (Wellington) were pretty good."
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As disappointing as the performance was, Townsend wasn't too concerned and said it's simply a matter of moving on and shifting focus to next weekend's bumper clash with the Mudgee Dragons.
The Group 11 and Group 10 crossover matches return next weekend and the top sides in each of the two pools are set to do battle at Apex Oval on Sunday.
After the Mudgee match, CYMS will then take on Forbes, who currently sit second in the Group 11 pool.
While the CYMS-Mudgee match will be billed as the biggest so far this season, Townsend isn't putting a huge amount of emphasis on it.
The focus for the coach remains on the Group 11 pool and ensuring the best chance of success come finals time.
"Our goal is to still finish top two in the Group 11 standings. We'll get a gauge on how we're going next week, win, lose or draw, but our goal is still that top two," he said.
"The next two weeks will be a really big challenge for us but we're looking forward to it."
CYMS has shown the ability to bounce back from a poor performance quickly already this season, having put more than 40 points on Bathurst St Pat's earlier in the year after a disappointing loss to Orange Hawks the week prior.
That round one defeat to Hawks remains CYMS' only loss up to this point.
"It's not like it happens every week," Townsend said.
"We set ourselves some goals and we didn't meet them on the weekend but we haven't been too far off the mark in other games.
"I'm not concerned at all."
A string of injuries to players in the backline has also impacted CYMS' momentum.
Jyie Chapman's injury-hit season continued on Sunday as he suffered another ankle niggle while Jeremy Thurston and Ali Beale were unavailable for the Cowboys match.
"It throws out our structure a little," Townsend said.
"We don't carry an extra outside back on our bench so we're putting Billy (Sing) out in the centres. We're robbing Peter to pay Paul there. We're taking away who I think is the best back-rower in the whole comp and putting him in the centres where he's not as effective. I think sides would rather see him there than in the back-row.
"Last game I think we had Brydon (Ramien) and Billy on the wing and at centre and we don't really want that. We want them on the edge where they can break tackles and get a bit of momentum for us and stop blokes in their tracks when defending. We've just been a bit unfortunate with a few injuries in the outside backs."
Ramien was back in the centres on Sunday and was one of his side's best, alongside young winger Jack Allen.
"They were probably the best and the only two who didn't drop the ball. When you hold the ball you can do something with it," Townsend laughed, before praising Ramien.
"He's getting into some match fitness and he was really good. He had problems with his feet and calves early on so he didn't do a heap of running at the start.
"We've been playing him in the centres so he's getting 80 minutes each week rather than just playing a bit in the back-row. He's getting better every game now."
Allen scored one of CYMS' four tries on Sunday, with Corey Drew, Fletcher Haycock and Sing scoring the others.