Pyke gave his side its first full-blown spray for the season during a flat performance against Ballarat and District Soccer Association cellar-dweller Maryborough.

And if the Rangers, missing injured full back Jacob Keilar (foot) and centre back Liam Priestley (leg), are to retain their grip on the league's top spot, Pyke said they can't make the same mistakes against Bacchus Marsh, ranked even lower than Maryborough, at Masons Lane on Sunday.

"We want to put the game to bed early against Bacchus," he said.

Sitting pretty on top of the ladder after a stirring 3-2 win over fellow premiership contender Ballarat North United, the Rangers had, according to Pyke, seemingly already penciled in another victory at Jones Oval against the eighth-ranked Maryborough.

The BDSA minnow had leaked 17 goals in six games and had scored nine goals compared to the Rangers' 32 heading into the clash.

But Maryborough landed the opening blow after just seven minutes when Tom Clinton capitalised on Warrnambool's bungled corner defence.

And this left Pyke, on the sidelines to get some senior level game-time into 16-year-old stopper Ben Rogers, in a fit.

"For that first 20 minutes there was just no leadership out there - no one stood up, which was disappointing," he said.

"We weren't vocal enough and didn't take ownership of the game, instead basically just being passengers.

"But credit to Maryborough - they put in a strong performance and took us by surprise. So we needed to be more switched on."

Pyke took the players into the rooms at the break, on level terms through Clinton Demartin (41^st minute), and demanded cleaner passing and a higher intensity of tackling for the second half.

The Rangers then grabbed the lead through Darcy Johnstone (58^th minute) and a buffer through Ryan Bail (73^rd minute) before Maryborough responded in the 77^th minute to turn the pressure valve back up.

And while Demartin slammed the gate shut with his second goal in the 84^th minute, Pyke said he remained less than impressed.

"It was a tough one to deconstruct because we didn't really do anything well for the first 45 minutes," he said.

"We didn't play near our best and managed to scrape through, but against a better opposition we might have been exposed and dropped points."

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