Victory were demolished 4-0 against Newcastle Jets at home last week and Hopkins demanded improvement from the young side that finished bottom of the table last season.

He got that, with the team looking competitive against the Sky Blues, particularly in the closing stages where they came close to snatching a point after Tash Dowie reduced the deficit to one.

And while last week Hopkins lamented there was too much of an overreliance on experienced players Christine Nairn and Dowie he said it still needed to be ironed out.

“I think the pleasing thing this week is we actually created enough chances to win the game, we’re probably putting a bit too much pressure on Natasha, expecting her to do a little bit too much on her own,” Hopkins said.

“Over the next few weeks, we'll work on our attacking structure just to build a bit more composure and getting a bit more bodies forward when the chances arise, we’re not actually just relying on one person.

“We’re still coughing up the ball too much, making too many individual mistakes. The performance was a big improvement from last week, we were up against a good side as well. There's a lot of things we need to fix but I guess we have to take it week by week."

Victory now look to the Melbourne Derby on Sunday against powerhouse City which will be played as a double header at AAMI Park before the A-League Victory V Newcastle Jets fixture.

Victory defeated City 2-0 in pre-season however the reigning champions were missing a number of key players who are now back from the United States.

“I won’t have to motivate anyone for the derby, we’ve had a look at them already, we’ll work out a plan and one thing that’s guaranteed is the players will be really up for it,” he said.

“The defeat and the performance hurt us badly as a group against the Jets and we drew a line under that saying it will never happen again. Effort-wise was much better against Sydney.

“The collective effort was much better, and we now need to work on other things, some of the technical attacks.

“A double header is a good way to showcase the women’s game, for us getting out and putting a performance in front of a good crowd and getting it live on television as well, it’s important for the game but for us we’ll be looking to get the three points and one over City.

“There’s no doubt they’re the yardstick in the league, but why not put ourselves out there and look to win the game, it’s a big scalp for us.”