Cumbernauld Colts head coach John Doyle insists his side are ‘not a million miles away’ as they seek points to claw themselves away from relegation trouble.
And he believes Colts have shown they are capable of competing with anyone in the Lowland League on their day.
The Broadwood club climbed off the bottom of the division last week with a surprise win over Celtic B, moving them a point clear of bottom side Broomhill, who have three games in hand.
Doyle took the reins last month and says he has seen signs in recent games that give him encouragement.
Colts – who beat defending champions and current leaders East Kilbride on the opening day of the season – face a big week ahead with home clashes against Cowdenbeath and Broomhill over the next two Saturdays.
And Doyle said: “I don’t think we are a million miles away from getting more results if we can do things properly.
“I watched the team play against Bo’ness before I took the job and there wasn’t a great deal between the teams, albeit Bo’ness showed a little bit of experience and game management to get them the points that day.
“I also watched the home game against Caley Braves and although I wasn’t heavily involved in the away game, it was 2-1 and 3-2 in those contests, so very tight games.
“Braves were 3-0 up and we managed to come back to 3-2 and we were unlucky not to take something out of that game.
“So we are showing we can compete. We’ll look to find where the weaknesses are and try to solve that.
“But we need to focus on the likes of Broomhill, Cowdenbeath, Gala and those sides.
“It is a tough time in the season because we are not just firefighting for right now, we are also trying to plan ahead for next season and that is difficult when you don’t know what division you are going to be in.
“We want to stay in this division and that is our focus at the moment.”
Colts now host EK in the first round of the Lowland Cup tonight and Doyle added: “There’s a wee hope we could catch East Kilbride cold and at the end of the day it is a cup tie. If we get through it would be nice, but at the same time the bread and butter is to get league wins. If we get anything from it, it is a bonus.”