Charlotte Dinsdale believes her young Imps side will benefit from coming up against two of the strongest sides they will face in the opening games of the season.
City's opening league opponents Loughborough Lightning and Peterborough United finished second and third respectively in FAWNL Division One Midlands last season, and are fancied to repeat their promotion pushes this time round.
Dinsdale said: “We could not have asked for a tougher opening, we don’t like losing games but both these sides will undoubtedly be right up there at the end of the season.
“They’ve shown our girls the standards they need to reach. As hard as it’s been for them in these two games, there have been some valuable lessons learnt by everyone which will help us as we head into the rest of the season.
“There are positives, too, from Sunday’s game with things we’ve worked on in training being implemented and more goalscoring opportunities which we didn’t have in the first game. We are seeing improvements in the way we’re playing but a couple of early injuries didn’t help, which meant our already light bench made things even more challenging.”
With a completely new coaching and playing squad put together this summer, Dinsdale recognises everyone needs more time working together before reaching their potential.
She added: “We have what is probably the youngest side in the division and it’s a tough for them to come together so quickly and then go and be competitive at step four - for many of these this is also a step up in level.
“So we do need to be patient and recognise we haven’t had as much time together as a group as others, and that the sides we’re up against are more established. Everyone is working hard and we’ve got the backing of everyone at the club with great training facilities for this level and a really good pitch for games, but it does take time.
“Whenever I came up against Lincoln City as a player I came off the pitch knowing I’d been in a game and we’ve got the right ingredients to build a team that can do that week in week out.”
City are back in action on Tuesday night when they head to higher division Hull City (7.45pm) in a cup game before welcoming Solihull Moors to the KAL Group Stadium in Gainsborough (2pm KO).