The Boiled Lollies played around 50 minutes short handed after Travis Taylor was given his marching orders.

It might have been a case of mistaken identity after a tackle which saw Eddie Lagaali handed a yellow card as well.

However after a slow start it kicked City into gear as they came away for a 37-26 win.

Coach James Curgenven certainly thought it did.

"We made it hard on ourselves and again it's the usual story of 20 minutes of rubbish," Curgenven said.

"We weren't focused and I don't know what we were thinking but the red card actually spurred us up.

"We started playing a bit of footy, went back to our structures and it clicked.

"We were lucky."

The Boiled Lollies trailed 19-12 when the cards started to fly but went into the break locked at 19-all after Curgenven scored right on half-time after Mesulame Navakayala received the first of two yellow cards in his return from a three-game suspension.

Wagga City had all the ball to start to the second half.

They first increased their lead through a Curgenven penalty goal before Nathan Smith scored.

Smith then went over for his third try to extend Wagga's City advantage.

Leeton got one back when Keveli Ralulu scored his second in the dying stages but the Phantoms had run out of time.

It sees them slip to sixth on the ladder, seven points behind fourth-placed Leeton.

As for City they've moved back into third and given themselves so breathing space approaching the midway point of the season.

Curgenven changed the warm up but it still didn't have the desired affect.

However coming off a loss to Ag College he thought it was an important win.

"It's made a big difference (to the ladder)," Curgenven said.

"They are obviously going to be a strong side going over to them at the end of the year so we have to make sure we can get as many home wins as we can.

"We've got to make sure we can a win over Albury and then it's the big one against Tahs."

Meanwhile Albury moved to fifth after a 37-10 win over Tumut at Murrayfield.

The Steamers have won three straight but are still six points behind the Bulls.

Blake Le Cornu finished with 22 points himself including two tries.

READ MORE