Gordonians assistant head coach Ryan Morrice is confident his side is heading in the right direction despite their below-par start to the campaign.
The Countesswells men sit third bottom of National League 2 with only two victories from their opening eight games.
Morrice believes the inconsistency shown by his team this season is understandable with so many young players at the club but feels improvements are being made every week.
He said: “Throughout the pandemic we did a lot of work off the pitch and we managed to get good numbers to training.
“We have 35 players coming to training and guys like Bevis Reid (director of rugby) have put a lot of hard work in behind the scenes.
“James Greenwood (Gordonians head coach) has come in with his style of play and there is a really good, positive attitude at the club.
“James puts a big focus on getting the culture at the club right and that’s really important.
“It is easy when you are losing games to be negative and downtrodden but the guys have been working hard in training and looking to improve. That is all you can ask for.
“The average age of our squad is around 21, which is young, and you have to remember that these players missed a year of their rugby development due to lockdown.
“We are trying to catch up and get up to that level.”
Gordonians went down 46-18 at Peebles last weekend and face another stern examination with the visit of fourth-placed Stewart’s Melville to Countesswells this weekend.
Morrice knows his side have their work cut out against the Edinburgh side who defeated Falkirk 43-10 at home last Saturday.
He said: “Peebles was a tough game. We were in the game for about an hour but we had a bad 10-15 minute period where Peebles clicked and everything went their way.
“We drifted out of the game after that.
“But it is not all doom and gloom.
“It is going to be a tough challenge against Stewart’s Melville.
“We are quite a young side and it a pretty hard league to develop and learn in.
“We are confident we can keep making progress if we stick to our processes.
“We don’t shy away from the challenge and we will front up to that on Saturday.”
