Phil Campbell head coach Ryan Swinney knows the effort is there.

He knows the hard work is being put in.

Now, he just wants to see it carry over for longer periods of time during Friday night games.

“We are just making a lot of mistakes and putting ourselves in holes,” said the first year head coach of the Bobcats.

Phil Campbell dropped its region opener to Hatton Friday night 42-0 and for the second straight game, the Bobcats were down by two scores almost as soon as the game began.

“There are a lot of things that we can do better to keep us from being in bad positions,” Swinney said.

“We will have a good drive going then we will have a bad snap or a penalty or something that we do to ourselves. Not to take anything away from our opponents, but we have to stop doing things that hurt us.”

The Bobcats are starting several players for the first time this year and Swinney believes some of the mistakes will get better as the players gain experience.

“We are young, but that’s no excuse,” he said. “We have got to work on ourselves.”

In the meantime, the Bobcats also have to prepare for an athletic Sheffield team this Friday.

“They have a couple of big guys up front and they are athletic,” Swinney said.

“It will be a challenge for us.”

Trying to stay out in front of the chains is one key for the Bobcats this week.

“We have spurts where we play pretty good, pretty tough,” Swinney said.

“We don’t have a lot of the big play threats, so we methodically move down the field and when you do that, you can’t make mistakes and get in holes.”

Despite the tough start so far, though, Swinney sees a good attitude from his team and thinks they will continue to get better.

“We have some kids on this team and they work hard. If we keep working and playing hard, some good things will start happening for them.”