ALLAN SALVONA saw his side lose 8-0 on Sunday but believes the team are just two or three players away from really pushing forward.

Dunfermline took a 2-0 lead into the break before a further six goals in the second half condemned the Wasps to their third defeat in a row.

Salvona told Advertiser Sport: "A lapse of concentration, just not following a runner for the first one. Definitely a handball for the second.

"To be fair the Dunfermline player apologised, held her hands up and said it was a handball but obviously she's going to take it and rightly so.

"The team talk at half time was very much, 'we're still in the match'. We had a couple of chances in the first half, obviously we hit the post, had a chance from a free kick on the edge of the box, too, so, on another day, we take those chances and go in at half time a very different game.

"We tried to mix it up, we played quite narrow in the first half and purposely so, having played them in a friendly so we knew some of the players. We tried to put our own stamp on it to try and get a bit of width but I think the girls just got a bit leggy.

"There was a lot of rotation which made us lose the balance so now, for us, it's about getting the consistent numbers."

Dunfermline's athleticism proved decisive, as did their superior numbers, and Salvona said it was great to see his team to put in such a shift.

He continued: "That was a lot of the chat from the girls in the changing room, they just ran out of legs.

"We had Summer [Garrity] who started in centre midfield and we pushed her up front because she was getting on the ball more and taking players on.

"Naturally she was drifting out to the right wing and she was getting a lot of joy out there but she was the first to hold her hands up and say she was absolutely knackered because she put in a shift, which is great."

Maisie McNamara only began playing football during the Covid-19 lockdown but Salvona said she has the ability to be a real problem for defenders.

He added: "Maisie in particular has been great, we've had a lot of one to one time with her.

"She's very athletic, we tried to work on the diagonal and playing in between the centre back and the full back.

"We've worked a lot at training on the defensive side but flipping that over there's a lot of individual coaching with her on how and when to make the runs.

"We knew Dunfermline were a little bit slower at the back; however, credit to them their goalkeeper read the game very, very quickly and acted as a proper sweeper."

Despite the three defeats, the team is still just months old and there are still hopes to add more players.

Salvona said: "Putting it into perspective, there are some girls that have only started playing in the last couple of years. We've got another couple coming along this week who are a bit more experienced. It feels like we're two or three players away from having the nucleus of a really good squad.

"The girls are striving for more success outside of training and they're all on their own kind of personal programmes too to try and make sure they can last the full 90 minutes.

"In terms of what they're looking to achieve it's matching our ambition which is great so if they can do as much of the fitness things themselves, we can work on the technical things at training."