Because Canberra United's finals dream is alive. The farcical decision to dock the club three competition points has been overturned on the eve of a game that could make or break their A-League women's title hopes.

Sanity has prevailed after Canberra United appealed a harsh penalty imposed by the Australian Professional Leagues, after the team was ruled to have used an ineligible substitute in a game last month.

The appeal was heard by Football Australia on Thursday night and in an embarrassing moment for the APL, the decision to strip Canberra of crucial ladder points was thrown out by the panel.

Popovich told his players at training at McKellar Park on Friday morning, giving the team a major boost heading into their final two games of the season.

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Canberra travel to face ladder-leading Western United on Saturday, before closing out their regular season campaign against Melbourne City next week.

The return of the three points originally docked by the APL will put Canberra on 25 competition points - two outside the top four with two rounds to play.

"It's a beautiful day, isn't it? Right before training at 9am, we got the call from our barrister in Sydney, telling us we had been awarded three points back and it was brilliant," Popovich said.

"I was always confident until I spoke to legal eagles, and then I started getting a little bit uncomfortable. It has to be said that our manager, Kelly Stirton, worked amazingly hard in the background.

"In the end, sanity prevailed, but it was also the right thing had been done. It was the just thing to do, to give our three points back.

"It keeps us in the race. Destiny is in our own hands to a certain degree, we still have to depend on some results going our way but it's still achievable, and we're still focusing now on one game at a time. Saturday is a grand final, as next week will be, for us.

"The great thing about it is if, or I should say when we win, that Melbourne City match next week is set up to be an amazing game. It's the last game of the round, so we'll actually know our fate going into it, which sets up a great finale for the end of the season. At the moment, it could be two of four teams that end up in the top four."

The substitution in question - when Grace Taranto replaced Michelle Heyman in the 93rd minute against Sydney FC in February - was approved by the fourth official at McKellar Park.

The APL then determined it was outside the designated three substitution windows allowed during a game. But confusion reigned about the use of injury and concussion substitutions in additional windows with Canberra told they were allowed to make one more change in the dying minutes of a 2-1 win.

Now it matters not. A "beautiful day", indeed.

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