Western Force coach Simon Cron was pleased to finally get back-to-back wins after Saturday night's 27-7 victory over the Waratahs at HBF Park.
But he was "gutted and disappointed" the Force could not leave with the bonus point that would taken them to just one point behind the eighth placed Fijian Drua in the race for the finals.
The Force looked to have picked up the crucial point when centre Bayley Kuenzle smashed his way over for what would have been his second of the night as the final siren loomed.
But the officials ruled he had lost control and there was separation before grounding the ball.
"There might be a hole in the wall upstairs (in the coaches box)," Cron joked.
"We had a couple more shots (after that) but couldn't get across the line but we'll take a lot of learnings from that.
"What I did like, the players kept fighting, looking for that bonus point at the end.
"That's a very tight bunch of boys out there on that field and that's what most impresses me.
"The win's good and there were great parts to that game.
"I thought we absorbed a bit of pressure early, they got across our line, but the key thing for me is how the players bounced back and how they reacted to that.
"They did well and came back with a couple of quick tries."
The Force now travel to Brisbane for a crucial clash against the Queensland Reds on Saturday (kick-off 5.35pm WST) before hosting the Brumbies seven days later.
The WA club scored 27 unanswered points - tries from Kuenzle, fly-half Ben Donaldson and No.8 Reed Prinsep with Donaldson kicking three conversions and two penalties - after the Waratahs had gone ahead early with a converted try from Mark Nawaqanitawase.
Force captain Jeremy Williams said consecutive wins and keeping the Waratahs pointless after their early score would give them confidence, but they would not be celebrating for long.
"We've talked about (how) we want to be a team that doesn't take the foot off the throat," Williams said.
"Really proud of the boys efforts and to come back and score 27 unanswered points shows our mentality throughout the game.
"We spoke about it as a forward group, all year we have not had back-to-back wins, so that gives us a bit of confidence.
"We won't be celebrating too long.
"We know the position we're in and we just move onto the Reds, keep ticking along."
Cron said having a settled side with key players returning played a big part in the win that came on the back of the 48-10 thrashing of the Drua.
And he said there was still room for improvement.
"We had a pretty tough start to the season, tested our depth," he said.
"Getting these boys back on the park, getting Jez (Williams) back and a couple of other key guys it's definitely helped our game.
"These leaders are leading very well. There is some very good messaging from them.
"Key players stepping up. We can get better. We just do what we do. We get better. We go again."
