ARDROSSAN Winton Rovers boss Gavin Friels says he is happy with how his side are adjusting to life in a higher division.

He admits there were lessons to be learned after going winless in their first four matches,  but with two league wins on the spin, the manager now feels they are turning performances into points.

Friels' side got their first win against Irvine Meadow earlier this month, before adding to their West of Scotland Football League First Division tally on Saturday as they defeated Thorniewood United 2-0 at their temporary Valefield Park home.

In between, the North Ayrshire outfit took Lowland League high-flyers Broxburn Athletic to extra-time in the South Challenge Cup - eventually losing 4-3.

An own goal and a Ryan Wilson strike handed Winton the points on Saturday, and the Winton Park boss is content his side are now "settling down" after their title win last season.

He commented: “I’ve not really had my full team on the park for any length of time. Maybe not being at our home park hasn’t helped us either.

“But we are starting to settle down a wee bit now.”

But Friels says there never was any real "panic", with the Ardrossan boss content with performances, even if they weren't fully translating into points.

"There was no panic or anything," he continued. 

"I think we are a good enough side.

“I don’t think we need to do anything dramatic. We just need to keep playing the way we are playing.

“We didn’t play great on Saturday, but if we play the way we did against Petershill and Broxburn, we will win more games than we lose.”

The Winton manager says he feels his side needed time to adjust to life in the higher division after winning back-to-back promotions.

Friels added: “We need to adapt to this league in terms of getting a bit better in both boxes.

“It’s not about being not good enough. The problem is we’ve been used to being so dominant in games that we get two or three chances at winning it.

“We were able to go down a goal and get back into it.

"As we go up our concentration level needs to be a tiny bit better. Last year if we gave away a couple of chances the opposition maybe wouldn’t have taken them; that’s not the case this year.”

And after picking up back-to-back wins, the Winton boss says he feels ready to keep the momentum going in the coming weeks.

He said: “We’ve worked hard and, Maybole apart [when Winton lost 3-0 at the beginning of August], we’ve put in a decent level of performance.

“It’s just a couple of adjustments. Hopefully we’ve learned from our mistakes and we can push on a bit. The results will come."

Next up for Ardrossan is a trip to face St Roch's on Saturday, August 31, with kick off at 2pm.