The next six weeks will judge where Hume United is as a team this season in FFV state league 2 north-west.
With three wins from the opening seven round matches, United sits two wins behind ladder leaders Geelong.
The most recent of those wins came on Saturday, with Enes Gurkan and Leon Osei scoring for United in its 2-1 win over Altona City.
New coach Rob Spasevski said he expected it to be a struggle early on as the side learnt to play together.
The former Altona Magic mentor is in his first year in the job and only four players of last year’s team remain.
“We had to get a team together from scratch,” he said. “When I came in as coach they wanted me to bring some players. I ended up bringing in 15 players.
“The first couple of games were purely ordinary. We’ve got a different 15 from the first couple of weeks and we’re now playing some good football.”
While they’ve won three, Spasevski said there were good signs in the losses as well.
“I’m happy with how the boys are performing and our losses, which were 3-2 and 2-1, didn’t do justice to the way we played,” he said.
“There were really good signs in our wins. We’re starting to gel and are only a game and half outside the top four.”
After tinkering with the line-up from the first couple of matches, Spasevski said they were starting to settle. As a result, a few of the younger players such as Saeeed Heyabu and Michael Pontikis were starting to show what they can do.
“We’re developing the young players and we’ve got good commitment from the experienced players,” he said.
“We’re in a results-based industry and they will see losses. It isn’t a true reflection of the barriers we’re breaking down as a team.”
Spasevski said he hoped the next few weeks would produce a few more wins.
“There’s still another 16 games left and if we string together two to three wins we’ll find ourselves in the top five.”
Sporting Whittlesea’s struggle to start has continued with a 5-2 loss to Corio.
In state league 3 north-west, Upfield defeated Westvale 3-1, Lalor United and La Trobe University drew 3-3 and Whittlesea United had a 4-1 win over Western Eagles.
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