DISAPPOINTED but determined and driven - that is the mood amongst the Western NSW FC first grade squad this week after the first loss of their National Premier Leagues 4 season.
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For the first time since replacing Bathurst '75 as the region's representative club in 2013, Western's top men's outfit began a campaign with three consecutive wins.
Though that streak came to a halt last Saturday night when falling 2-0 to South Coast Flame, the character that the squad showed has coach Mark Rooke feeling optimistic about what lies ahead.
"Credit to the boys, at no stage in the game did they ever stop trying, stop giving everything that they could have, which over past seasons is something we have been known to do," Rooke said.
"We were always on the edge of just being in the match, just being one goal away. We knew if we could get one we could probably get two, it was just one of those nights I suppose.
"The boys were disappointed after coming off after the match, but we spoke it about and they are probably the best side we've played so far. They came to play and they pressed us really hard and credit to them, they deserved to win."
While disappointed, Rooke said his squad is determined to "rectify things" and that finals football is still the goal for their 2020 NPL4 campaign.
Western is still second on the ladder after four of the 11 scheduled rounds. For one of those remaining weekends they will have the bye, while three games will be played at their home grounds. Rooke knows his squad have not produced their best football yet either.
"Going from the space where, well we won three matches the whole of last season and to come into a season and win three in a row it's like 'What's going on here?'," Rooke said.
"I said it after the loss, it's a little bit of grounding for us. We're still not close to where we want to be, we need to keep working hard at training and make sure we fight for that every week. We want to win matches.
"Our goal at the end of the day hasn't changed. We set out to win six matches and see where that landed us and hope for semi-finals. We are still only three matches away from that and have plenty of matches to pick those wins up."
Western hosts Hawkesbury City at Orange's Jack Brabham Park at 3pm on Saturday.
