PAUL Long remembers what it felt like to be 'rinsed' by Orana Spurs last season, but he and his Panorama FC team-mates are now using that as motivation to build on their best start to a Western Premier League campaign.
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In the return season of the competition in 2020, which also marked Panorama's Western Premier League debut, the Bathurst club known as the Goats had the better of Orana.
Twice they played, twice the Goats came away with the points with a 3-1 and 4-1 result.
But last season it was Spurs who had bragging rights. They came from 2-0 down to beat the Goats 4-3 in their first meeting then backed that up with a dominant 7-2 result.
"They rinsed us the last time we played them last year before the competition got shut down," Long recalled.
"That's something we need to draw on, you don't want to let it rule you, but it's nice to have that extra bit of motivation to try and prove yourselves."
Prove themselves is something the Goats have done so far this season, winning back-to-back games to open a campaign for the first time. They and are Parkes are the joint competition leaders.
Long said the goal for his side is to avenge their poor results against Orana last season and make it three wins in a row to go their round four bye without loss.
"It's our best start so far and if we could go into our first bye with nine points, that would be an absolutely perfect start," Long said.
"We're still very grounded, we're very happy with where we are at, but we're still just starting out, we've got a lot to work on and a lot to improve on.
"We've started with the first blocks and we'll build from there, but we're really, really excited about going forward."
Long said the main area which the Goats are aiming to improve is defence. It has been good thus far, but Spurs - who will have the home ground advantage - are sure to give it a thorough test
"We are working on not leaking goals because when you get down to it, that's the most important thing. If you don't conceded and can take a couple of chances in attack, well then chances are that you're going to win a game of football," he said.
"We've only conceded one so far in two matches, but we've still got a lot of work to do on that.
"We know Orana are a good side, that will be a really good test for us to see where we are at. They go forward really well too.
"So we've got a big task ahead of us, but if we can walk away with three more points, then we know we're doing something right."
Long draws confidence from the talent within the Goats' squad.
"One of our biggest strengths this year is our depth, we have good players both on the pitch and guys who will come on an have an impact - we've got an insane player base to draw on, so when we do make changes, we don't lose anything," he said.
Kick-off in the round three clash, to be played at Dubbo's Hans Claven 2, is 4.30pm Saturday.
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