Macleay Valley Rangers are slowly ticking off the items featured on the Coastal League One Women’s checklist.
They have now registered a draw, a clean sheet and scored their first goal of the competition in the opening two rounds.
The focus now is to put a 90-minute performance together when Coffs City United Lionesses roll into town on Saturday.
Captain Heidi Tamblyn acknowledged her side had shown small signs of improvement in their first two matches of the season.
But they’re nowhere near the finished product just yet.
“There is a lot of room for us to improve,” she said.
“Last weekend’s game showed me the potential that we have because we haven’t been training or organised ourselves very well, yet we managed to get a draw against Boambee.
“We knuckled down defensively, even though our shape wasn’t necessarily what we’re looking for.”
Tamblyn was looking forward to the challenge of playing their first match at home for the season against a powerhouse such as the Lionesses who play a similar formation to Rangers.
“They’ve had the reputation of being one of the tougher teams in the league in the past and I expect after our result last weekend they’ll come out pretty tough,” she said.
“They won’t give us a chance to breathe because they transition quite quickly.
“We’ll have to make sure that if we turn the ball over, we’re dropping back and transitioning just as quickly in defence as they are so we can get back behind the ball.”
Rangers know they won’t get too many opportunities.
“It will be a matter of capitalising on the opportunities and making sure we stay solid defensively like we have been in the last couple of games,” the captain said.
“They’ll be tough for sure but I’m pretty excited to see how we do against them. I think we’ll definitely be able to compete.”
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