Fielding a makeshift back four in the absence of regular defenders Sean Kiddey (overseas) and Harry Pettit (calf injury), United took the lead before being overhauled by a resurgent Woden at Kambah on Saturday.

United's focus shifts to its historic round of 16 FFA Cup encounter on either September 16 or 23, potentially against an A-League side.

Forshaw admitted his side could have been affected by its stunning win in the national knockout tournament over South Hobart on August 5.

"I can't put it down to anything else, I can't think of any reason why it was such a flat performance,'' Forshaw said.

"If that is the case, then we have to be better than that.

"There were too many changes on the back of the excitement of Hobart, it's just backfired.

"It's my fault, I take full responsibility.''

Forshaw also started Zach Munster as a reward for scoring the equaliser in the FFA Cup in the place of Tom Ruiz.

Tuggeranong is in sixth place on the Capital Football NPL table, five points adrift of fourth-placed Canberra Olympic.

"A successful season would have seen us in the top four, and we've shown throughout the course of the season, in the first round, that we're good enough to be in the top four,'' Forshaw said.

"Our second round has not been good enough, by a long shot.

"We've learnt some valuable lessons, so we'd look to build on that between now and the start of next season.''

The Football Federation of Australia Centre of Excellence moved up to fifth on the table with a 4-2 win against the Monaro Panthers on Saturday.

In Sunday's games, the Cooma Tigers can wrap up the league championship when they host Belconnen United at Nijong Oval in a top of the table showdown, while Canberra Olympic takes on Canberra City at O'Connor Enclosed.

Both games are at 3pm.

SATURDAY: Capital Football NPL: Woden Valley 3 (Rowan Blake 37', 58', Marco Gayer 87') bt Tuggeranong United 1 (Matt Menser 18' pen). FFA COE 4 (Daniel Maskin 2, Cameron Joice, Kosta Petratos) bt Monaro Panthers 2 (Martin Deng, Pepe Varga).