St Cuthbert Wanderers boss Josh Gardner admits his side are far from the finished article despite recording their third win in a row.
The South of Scotland League champions beat Wigtown and Bladnoch 3-1 on Saturday at St Mary’s Park.
While delighted the methods of his coaching team are beginning to bear fruit, Gardner knows there is still plenty more to be done.
He said: “I always say to the boys you need to strive to be as close to perfection as you can be and we’re not anywhere near perfection.
“We’ve still got a lot of work to do. We lost three games in a row and have responded with three wins in a row. You can’t ask for much more than that but there’s still a lot we can do to get better.
“The performance against Threave was really good even though we lost. I focused on the performance and thought after that the wins would come and that’s what’s happened.
“The changes we’ve made to the team have worked as we’re conceding less goals and scoring more. We just need to keep working at it and trying to perfect it.”
Saints edged in front on Saturday when Cameron Shaw’s header found the net just before the break.
They doubled their advantage midway through the second half when Derek Armstrong scored from the spot after Mark Hoskins saw red for a handball.
Robbie Dargie halved the deficit moments later but a quarter of an hour from the end Reece McAteer scored the decisive third.
Gardner said: “We passed up a few chances and could have put the game out of sight so we made it more difficult for ourselves.
“We went in 1-0 up at half-time but we should have been two or three up. We should have had a penalty, then we ended up getting one because one of the outfield players basically saved it on the line.
“They were down to 10 men then moments later they had a weird goal from our point of view. It looks like the guy has gone to play the assist but not gone where he wanted, then with a bit of fortune it’s gone to the striker and I don’t think he’s meant to finish the way he did.
“It’s back to 2-1 and it’s an even game, then five or 10 minutes later we restored the two goal lead and it was pretty comfortable.
“I never thought at any point we were in danger of losing or drawing. It was a case of getting the goals as we seem to be a bit powder puff so that’s something we’ll be looking to improve on – being a bit more clinical and creating more chances.”
Saints have a great chance to make it four wins on the spin this weekend with a trip to Lanarkshire to play Caledonian Braves’ second string.
Their opponents are bottom of the table with no points from their opening five games but Gardner isn’t taking anything for granted.
“It’ll be more of a home game for our lads as a lot of them come from
the central belt. It’s a good surface as well so we’re looking forward to the game.”
