United will host the side at Mia Sports Field, with captain Joey Fondacaro hopeful the first grade team had shaken out the cobwebs. 

Last weekend Leeton went down 3-1 to Tolland in what the coaches and the captain himself labelled as a “poor performance”. 

“We all knew it wasn’t our best game and that we can definitely play better,” Fondacaro said. 

“We were sluggish even in warm up. It wasn’t good. 

“We spoke about it at training on Tuesday and I’m confident the boys will put in a better performance this weekend.”

In their path will be the Strikers, a side they drew with last season. 

Cootamundra also opened their 2018 account with a loss to last year’s premiers Henwood Park. 

With both teams desperately seeking a win, Fondacaro was expecting a tough game. 

“They were really strong last year, so I don’t think it will be any different now,” he said. 

“Cootamundra are very strong defensively and it’s hard to break through, but that’s what we are going to have to do.”

The side is hopeful Adam Raso will be back in the first grade team this weekend, but Fondacaro still wasn’t certain. 

“What we want is to get away with a good start on Sunday,” Fondacaro said. 

“We didn’t do that last weekend, so if we can do that this week, I think it will set us up for the rest of the game. 

“I think we also need to just make sure our attack and defence are better. We just weren’t picking up the ball in attack last week and defensively we weren’t there either.” Sunday will be the second consecutive week United has played on their home turf and the first grade side will be hoping to better utilise this advantage before hitting the road to Wagga next weekend.