And the students only were too happy to play teacher.

The Lakoseljac Cup first-round exit left coach Lino Sciulli to abandon his post-game talk with players, just two days before the side's NPL clash at Kingborough in the Easter Monday fixture.

"Believe it or not, I didn't talk to them after the game," Sciulli said.

"I don't really know what their confidence levels are like, but they're pretty angry."

The visitors took a first-half lead into the interval until the versatile David Smith put City back on level terms.

But a second Uni strike heading late in the game broke the deadlock.

A close to full-strength City would have been hoping for a repeat of the 2017 cup encounter when Uni led at stoppage time only to concede a last-minute equaliser.

Sciulli walked away at the final whistle feeling indifferent about the final outcome.

He has now been forced to make wholesale changes ahead of facing the Lions in the longest state NPL trip.

"We certainly did not want to lose the game," he said.

"But now I am thinking about it, I am probably happier that we are out of it.

"We have picked up a few injuries and that, so come May we'll be struggling to have them back by then."

Riverside Olympic had no such hiccups in a 3-0 victory at Windsor Park over Nelson.

Roos coach Alex Gaetani was content to get through to the second round unscathed.

"I think considering the circumstances, we did pretty well in the end," Gaetani said. "We should've probably won by more, but we won pretty comfortably in the end."

Aaron Campbell opened the scoring off a first-half penalty. Former Launceston United and Northern Rangers playmaker Matt Spanos claimed a first goal for his new side before Mitch Roberts scored late in the game.

Gaetani felt the tough NPL Tasmania initiation assisted against a championship side since leaving that level of competition last year.

"It definitely made a difference," he said. "One week we played South Hobart, the next we played a southern championship team."

A nine-man Somerset advanced to the Lakoseljac Cup quarter-finals following a 4-2 win against Beachside.

South Hobart overcame Hobart United 3-1 while Taroona got past Metro 2-0.

Riverside called on five different scorers to thump Northern Rangers 5-1 in the under-20 Statewide Cup while Launceston City are through to the next round courtesy of a 3-0 forfeit win from Clarence United.