Tevita Aroha swooped on a bouncing ball with two minutes remaining to snatch West Belconnen a 26-24 victory in a heated clash with arch-rivals Gungahlin, but Thompson was quick to put a dampener on the occasion.

Despite being the only team to defeat the ladder-leading Queanbeyan Blues this season, Thompson believed his Warriors still had a "long way to go".

"It's pretty deflating today, actually," Thompson said.

"It was pleasing, but we've still got a lot to work on. The Bulls probably deserved to win that, they played really well.

"It was probably a tale of two halves again. We were a bit ordinary in the first half, and they were ordinary in the second half. It was good to get a win, but we've got a lot of work to do."

A Warriors error on the opening play of the game set the tone for the first half, as the Bulls crashed over just moments later on their way to a 16-8 half-time lead.

Thompson said costly errors had proved to be a thorn in the Warriors' side all season.

"I think if we can get our attack right and just play simple footy, complete our sets, we're going to be hard to beat," he said.

"We have an error and we just can't defend that error, and they end up scoring a try. It's just that mental toughness. It's a young side, but we've just got to get better."

Thompson praised the efforts of young halfback Jacob Graham, who bagged two vital tries after being called up from reserve grade during the week, but said his youngsters couldn't be expected to shoulder the load every week.

"For us, we need 17 blokes playing well, we can't just have one or two blokes playing well," Thompson said.

"We're not that sort of side that has that sort of strike power, so we need everyone performing well."

Gungahlin coach Withers was hurting for his players, who slumped to a second-straight defeat after coughing up an eight-point lead with less than eight minutes remaining.

"I thought today [we] were the better team, and [we] defended really well which has been lacking probably the last couple of weeks," Withers said.

"It is disappointing, but that's footy, and they [West Belconnen] were good enough to get it in the end."

Despite the loss, Withers said the effort shown by his side was a marked improvement on last week's clash with Woden, as the Bulls showed they had the potential to match it with the competition's best teams.

"The pleasing thing is that [they scored] two tries off kicks, and two dummy-half tries. They didn't beat us at footy, they got the luck of the green," he said.

"I'm proud of my boys, I just hope they bring that effort each week and we'll win some games finishing off."