Before the home game vs Bega, veteran Tathra player Paul Brunton had noted that now was the time for the Tathra team to make a move and get a result against Bega if they were to make the Reserve Grade finals this year.

Tathra won the toss and elected to play with the strong and gusty southerly wind at their backs for the first half, making the most of the advantage pressing Bega back for much of the half.

Tim Dowman had the best scoring opportunity of the half when his power shot from just outside the top of the penalty area forced a fingertip save over the bar from the Bega keeper.

Then Tathra had a close call clearing the ball from a goalmouth scramble following a Bega corner when Josh Becker hit the post from close range for Bega.

In the second half, Tathra goal-keeper, Hugh Pitty, knew that he would see more action as the wind continued to blow from the south. Bega had a succession of corners, but the well-organised Tathra defence stood firm repelling the Bega corner-kicks time after time.

To their credit, the Tathra defence restricted the Bega attack to relatively few shots on goal. However, twice the Tathra keeper was called to make critical interventions to deny Bega: the first being to punch clear a looping ball and the second being to get fingers to push a low shot around the post to safety, five minutes from full-time.

With the game looking like it could have gone either way being kept to a 0-0 draw, a Tathra spokesperson said afterwards "it felt like a win for Tathra having survived the Bega onslaught in the second half".

The result means that Tathra are now the only team to take points from Bega in this year's competition, but critically, lifts the United FC from the bottom of the table.

Officials said due to the large number of washouts and COVID-affected fixtures involving Mallacoota that Tathra still have five rounds to play catch-up, while some of the higher teams have more games already in the scorebook.

Tathra's five remaining games include games against Merimbula (twice), Mallacoota (twice) and Eden (once) with the club sitting only four competition points behind the Grasshoppers in fourth as it stands.

This gives the Tathra Reserves hope that their hard fought draws against Bega and Bemboka in the past two weeks may lead to a run of positive results over the coming weeks that see the Tathra Reserves realise their potential and make the most of their late push to reach the finals.

The club host a visit from the Grasshoppers at the Tathra Beach ground this Sunday.

Bega travel to Eden and Bemboka host Mallacoota.