Pyke said his side would employ its familiar passing style as it battles to cement a place within the Ballarat and District Soccer Association top four.

The third-year coach said his youthful side were optimistic on the back of being the only side to defeat Forest last season.

“These young kids – they have no reservations,” Pyke said.

“They aren’t scared of any side and they don’t back down. That’s something you can’t teach as a coach, it has to come from a young age.

“They’ll take confidence knowing that we’ve beaten them (last season). Hopefully that can flow through for the rest of the team.”

Pyke told The Standard it was vital for Warrnambool to stick to its signature style and to avoid falling into negative or defensive tactics.

“A lot of clubs would probably just try to negate the opposition that is going as well as Forest are,” he said.

“But as far as I’m concerned, that’s not the right way to go about your football. It’s not encouraging players to grow and build.

“The style we’re committed to playing really lends itself to the development of our players.”

He said two successive victories had the side full of confidence and faith in their game plan.

“We tend to play well at Wendouree and we like the pitch so we’ll go in really confident.”