Head coach Perry Northeast felt Norwich City Women were just missing a finishing touch in their defeat to Rugby Borough on Sunday.
"It was a good game. It was close. It was two teams that hadn't been beaten in the season in the league and it felt like that as well. I think both teams were good at times and both teams were nervy at times.
"I'm still happy with how we were with the ball, in particular in the second half. I felt we were able to progress the ball and progress into the final third on many occasions.
"We didn't quite then finish the attack with the finesse that we need to at this level to see out the good play that was happening in the earlier parts of the field.
"But all that being said, we've only been together a few weeks and they're a much more established side at this level than us and they've been together as a squad for longer than us.
"To keep the game that close and to nullify their threats in large spells as we felt we did, we must take away some pride in that."
Sunday's defeat was City's first of the season but their performance left plenty of positives to take away.
"Yes, well it's important as we said in the dressing room that you never take away the disappointment of losing a game because that's why we're in it at this level and at senior level because we want to win games
"But we can't be disheartened at what we've tried to do today because we have pressed well, we have built with the ball at times well and we have had opportunities to finish the attack and produce moments in the final third. So, yeah, we won't be too disheartened.
"It will naturally be disappointing. We'll naturally have reflection both individually and as a group but we must take these positives."
Northeast was forced to withdraw Elliana Martin and Millie Daviss due to knocks during the game. Speaking on the current injury situation amongst the squad he said: "Naturally a three game week can be challenging at any point in the season and that's why we have a full squad and we have managed to rotate players around this week and all in all we have put in three good performances on the large with a varied squad and a varied starting team each week.
"So the injuries are just minimal at the moment and low key. There isn't anything major to inform but we will assess at the end of today because obviously we've had to take a couple of players off today but they are contact based injuries and we will prepare as best we can for the weekend."
City travel to Luton Town next Sunday for their second group game in the FAWNL Cup.
"We will prepare like we do with any game, we'll give the opposition the respect that we give everybody. The League Cup is a competition that we would like to try and progress in and see how far we can get. We've obviously started well with the victory on Tuesday evening against Cambridge so we would like to continue that momentum in the competition.
"So we'll prepare and offer Luton the same level of respect that we'd offer anybody when we're preparing."