Aberdeen Grammar head coach Ali O’Connor believes his side is close to hitting its stride in National 1.
The Rubislaw side suffered a 41-33 home defeat against Jed-Forest last weekend but O’Connor was heartened by the way his side matched the division’s second-best team during a close contest.
Grammar head to Musselburgh tomorrow followed by a trip to Cartha Queens Park and a home match against Dundee HSFPs before the November international break.
O’Connor, whose side is seventh in the table with three wins from seven games, said: “We had a tough start to the season. We played a lot of the best teams before we had a lot of our players back and for the first three games, we weren’t anywhere near where we needed to be and that was really down to player availability.
“But players such as Nathan Clough and Nat Coe have come in and strengthened our back division.
“The players are starting to understand each other a lot more now and we are on an upward curve. We are aiming for a couple of wins before the November international break, we would like to win all our games but if we can get to five wins by the break then we would be reasonably happy.
“Given where the club has been in recent times, it does show progression.
“We are doing all right, but there is more to come.”
Grammar will be without winger Grant Walker who is unavailable due to work commitments.
O’Connor said: “That is a shame because he has been playing very well this year and we will miss his experience and enthusiasm.
“Going to Musselburgh is always tough because we know where their strengths lie. They have a very dominant forward-orientated team. In the past we have struggled against teams that can compete against us physically, but if we play how we have been and off-loading and playing the ball into space then it will drag them around.
“We are targeting taking full points from the game.
“Last week’s match against Jed was disappointing because the players felt we could have won. I watched the video back and I felt that assessment was fair enough.
“Jed were excellent at taking their chances but we coughed up a couple of tries and that proved to be the difference between the teams.
“The players got a real positive boost from having such a close match with one of the teams at the top end of the table and although we didn’t get the result, we feel we can match any team in the league on our day.
“There are definite signs of progress but there is a lot of work to be done as well.”
