HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — It’s been a special, exciting few weeks here in the Rocket City as Huntsville City FC finally got to play its first-ever home games.

Now as they look towards the final game of their inaugural homestand with just a 1-2 record, Head Coach Jack Collison and his guys are ready to use this home crowd to launch them back to success.

“It’s been so fun to finally get into this beautiful stadium and the support was phenomenal. We appreciate that and we feel that more than ever so for us it would be nice to give the fans a real boost, a real good performance this weekend,” Collison said.

Last week’s game was a tough one for HCFC, going up 3-0 before New York City FC 2 stormed back for the 4-3 win.

It’s another one-goal loss for the guys: every single loss this season has been by a goal or less. So Collison says he’s encouraged by the progress his squad is making but knows that they need to sharpen up on defense.

“If we can keep looking dangerous and being potent but have a little more of a focus on our structure behind the ball and individual defensive actions within that, I think that we’ll be in a really good place,” Collison said. “I think the key message was hey the second half wasn’t great but we believe in this group so much. We know that we have some talented individuals and guys who would go above and beyond playing for Huntsville City and it’s about us remembering that and remaining humble, keeping that hard work and we know that if we can get that bit right, we’ll get on a pretty good run at some point.”

And this is the time to do it. Sunday’s match against St. Louis City 2 will start a crucial stretch as Huntsville City FC will play three matches within one week, so playing at their best will be huge.

“We’ve had a good week, lots of heart to hearts, lots of talking as a group and as a staff and hopefully we’re in a good place this week to put it right in what is probably a season-defining week for us,” Collison said. It’s a big week for us so it’s been a balance of pushing the boys and working them hard and trying to build that into them and also at the same time understanding that we have three big games next week as well.”

Kickoff between Huntsville City FC and St. Louis City 2 is set for Sunday at 6:00 p.m. at Wicks Family Field at Joe Davis Stadium.