United dominated possession and looked certain to bank an important three points before Macleay Valley Rangers struck three late blows to steal all the points in a 3-1 win.

A Kaleb Langbein second-half strike put United in front, but they couldn’t put Rangers away when the opportunities presented themselves.

Wade lamented an important three points they should have taken.

“We dominated the game and their coach even admitted he had no idea how they won the game,” he said.

“They have that winning mentality and that’s what got them home.”

The loss was United’s third from their past four starts which leaves them sitting precariously in third position, just four points ahead of sixth-placed Taree Wildcats.

The Wildcats have two catch-up games in hand.

“We weren’t good enough,” Wade said.

“But we know if they’re the best team in the competition we can compete with them for 75 minutes, we just need to do it for 90.”

The United coach admitted his side needed to stop the slide and conceded they could slip out of finals contention.

“Anything is possible, but hopefully we will have a few wins by the end of the season and get into the finals because we’re building into a good team,” he said.

Rangers coach Dean Riordan told the Macleay Argus that they didn’t deserve to win.

“It was like we robbed the bank and got away with it,” he said.

“I've never been involved in a match where we were dominated so much and ended up earning the three competition points.”