Jim Chapman admits he wants to “promote from within” rather than splashing cash in the transfer market.
The Kilmarnock Women boss has been impressed with his current crop of players, but also the youngsters pushing through the ranks.
He has been keeping an eye on the Under-18s specifically, and says he will give them a chance to prove their worthy of a first-team spot.
Chapman said on the Kilmarnock WFC Twitter: “It’s very difficult coming in so close to the season starting.
“The transition from the ladies team coming under the umbrella of the club, in this new professional environment.
“I think the club deserve tremendous credit for taking this step and the commitment behind it.
“The club have demonstrated loyalty to the girls who were here before, they are getting first opportunity to take this step.
“There are some excellent young players here too, I will have no hesitation to go that way before trying to get others in.
“We are going to build a programme in that we promote from within, first thing I’ll be doing is seeing how many of the Under-18s are ready to come up and challenge for a first-team jersey.
“If I need to make changes in the transfer window I will, but my first port of call will be the Under-18s.”
Killie lost 3-2 at home to Gartcairn on Sunday after surrendering a 1-0 lead.
Abby Robinson and Alex Middleton bagged goals for the Ayrshire side, but it wasn’t enough to clinch any points.
Chapman said: “There was a mix of emotions, we started well and we’ve got a lot of belief in what we’re doing.
“There was a lot of good build-up play, we took the lead deservedly so, we then missed a good opportunity to go 2-0 up.
“Then I started to see some of the flaws coming from the group at the moment, maybe a lack of leadership and experience.
“Sometimes you learn a lot more in defeat, and Sunday was a fantastic learning opportunity for myself, my staff and the players as well.
“We had a good chat and some of their feedback has been fabulous, it shows that they’re hurting which is a good sign.”
He continued: “When you go and concede a goal with slightly poor defending, maybe a bit of indecision, it gives the visitors a lift.
“It went from us having the chance to go 2-0 up to seeing it be 1-1, the momentum swings and goals change games, everyone knows that.
“We didn’t seem to stick together, we became a bit disjointed, individually we started focusing on our own job rather than the collective.
“The second goal was a poor goal to lose and that gave Gartcairn all of the momentum.
“We then went 3-1 down, but I think we can take a lot of credit that we kept fighting, we deservedly got back into the game.
“I’d rather get beat 4-2 trying to make it 3-3, so we went and challenged trying to equalise.”
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