WAUCHOPE coach Terry Burn is not pushing the panic button despite his side being humbled 6-0 by Macleay Valley Rangers on Saturday at Fairmont Gardens.
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In their return to the Football Mid North Coast Premier League, the home side were no match for a well-drilled Rangers side who opened the scoring in the first five minutes.
From there it was a steady procession of goals.
Burn now realises the jump his team will have to make from winning the northern league last year to being competitive in the Premier League is a significant one.
But he saw enough from his team to suggest with the benefit of a few weeks they will improve.
“I’m not overly disappointed in the result, but I think the boys worked hard,” Burn said.
“The first 30-odd minutes I think we definitely were on par, if not had a bit better possession and were playing good football.
Burn admitted the difference in game speed was the main difference his team would need to adjust quickly to.
“The big problem coming up from the other competition is that we’re just too slow,” he said.
“We’ve got to learn to play a faster game. That’s what cruelled us.
“Give us four or six weeks in the competition and we’ll be coming up to the pace then.
“It’s not something you can just turn the tap on and it’ll happen. You’ve got to learn from it first and that’s what we’re doing.”
Wauchope trailed 4-0 at half-time and Burn was pleased with the second-half performance which stemmed the flow of goals.
Burn said the performances of right back Jack Dobbyns and captain Josh Everingham provided some shining lights for the team.
“It’s always disappointing to have a loss, but the most disappointing part for us was that we didn’t score a goal,” Burn said.
“We created plenty of opportunities to score goals, it’s just that final killer pass that didn’t hit the mark.
“It would have been good to finish a few of those chances because you never like being held to nil, but we were.
"Guys are having a serious crack, it’s just that we’ve got some stuff to work on now which is good.”
Meanwhile, Port United were defeated 2-0 by Kempsey Saints after they found themselves 2-0 down inside 20 minutes, but coach Nathan Wade was far from disappointed.
“We created a few chances, but unfortunately just didn’t put the ball in the back of the net,” he said.
He wasn’t concerned about their lack of composure in front of goal.
“If we got beaten 2-0 and were totally outplayed I’d be concerned, but I was pleased with the way we played.”