Karen Hills said her side are 'getting better' every week after Charlton Women lost 4-1 at home to London City Lionesses.
"If you get caught up on the result, then it’s not going to help in any way, shape or form.
"We’re a new team, we’ve newly grouped, and for a lot of these players it’s the first time they’ve played at this level, and it’s going to take time to get up to speed, and every week I’m seeing those positive performances, and we’re getting better."
It may be the third loss in a row for the team, but there was solace in the fact that the team scored their first goal of the season and the first Charlton goal ever in the Barclays WSL.
What a goal it was, with Jodie Hutton hitting an outrageous strike on the half-volley to, at the time, cut London City's advantage in half.
"It was an individual bit of brilliance. We know that she has got the capabilities. There are players in the team that have those capabilities; I see it in training, and then it’s just having those moments.
"We’re going to get a few and far between moments, and those are the moments we have to take, and I think she took hers so well today.
"The front players are working so, so hard, but then when they get those moments, they have to really execute them, and I thought today that was a world-class finish."
Soon after Hutton scored to bring the game to 2-1, London City got another, which halted a lot of the Addicks' momentum. Hills acknowledged that as much herself.
"Two-nil, and then we obviously scored an unbelievable goal. Then it was about holding on to half-time to give us that reset moment, and unfortunately that didn’t happen, and I think that third goal was a sucker punch for us.
"Then we had to go in and regroup, but the same message was to continue to do what you were doing in the first half because I thought we were excellent. I thought we were even better than we were last week, and I asked for that performance.
"Can we keep improving week after week? Because we haven’t got time to learn our trade on the training ground; we have to learn our trade in these games, and I thought today we were excellent in terms of our pressing and the way we competed against a very, very good London City side."
Despite the loss, there were other positives, with good creative moments for the team in attack, and great fighting from the team in defence.
Now the team's attention turns to Wednesday against Brighton in the Players' Cup, before returning to The Valley for the visit of the WSL champions, Man City, in the league.
Hills knows that will be a big test next week, but is upbeat about what her team could do.
"We know what we need to do to try and compete in this league, but at the same time, we have another hard test next week against another top side, champions of last year, but [it's] another chance for us to show what we can do, and I thought our identity today was pleasing to see."