Coming into the season with a young side brimming with potential, Hanwood Juniors have been left to rue several missed opportunities for full points, with draws seeing them at the bottom of the ladder heading into this weekend.

But an intriguing mid-table battle is set to unfold over the coming month with the bottom four teams separated by only two points with Hanwood Juniors potentially leaping to fourth in the ladder.

"I believe we could be in a better position, we drew one with Griffith City last week after being 2-0 ahead at half-time and with Leeton in the first round I felt like we should have won that game as well since we had most of the possession," Carusi said.

"We need to dominate for longer periods, because I think we start panicking and thinking we'll go back to how we were playing last year.

"We start playing in a more defensive mode and we need to keep on attacking if we get the chance."

While Hanwood's backs have at times been prone to letting in a number of goals, with 20 being scored against the side in the first six games, Carusi said his men need to forget the first round and have confidence in the man next to them.

"Our backline and midfield need to have more confidence in each other," he said.

"But there's a lot to play for because had we beaten YFC we would have jumped to third spot because nobody is really running away with the competition because nobody is getting full wins at the moment.

"Teams are wary of us and I would love to pick up wins against these bigger sides, we're going to win and I said at the start of the season if we can beat the Wests' and the Leeton's and the Griffith City's and pick up a win against the big sides then we'll be travelling well."

Making Hanwood's job harder this weekend is the departure of key defender John Minato, who will be unavailable for the next month, but the side's midfield depth has been given a boost in recent weeks with the return of Luke Ellis from injury with the club also gaining the services of Gabriel Bertola, who has come to the city from Milan and is settling well into the team accordng Carusi.