The Sharks will play host at Ocean Park on Saturday afternoon - just a fortnight after losing 4-1 to the Lions in a Bert Bampton Cup clash.

However, Woonona showed plenty of grit in their 2-1 loss to IPL contenders Bulli last week and coach Dan McGoldrick will be keen to build on that showing.

"I was happy with the effort, but there were too many lapses in concentration and too much turnover of possession. The attitude and effort was good, but our concentration and execution, in attack, was poor," McGoldrick said.

"Cringila beat us convincingly in the Bert Bampton Cup so we're expecting a tough match. They have a solid defence and quality going forward. They have excellent goal scorers so we'll need to be at our best to be competitive.

"We need to concentrate for the whole game. We need to cut out the errors in our half and take the limited chances we create. We can't afford to make those mistakes because good teams punish you."

Cringila narrowly avoided IPL relegation last year, finishing in 11^th position.

Coach Stuart Beedie said the club targeted "quality" during the off season - including the addition of former Wolves striker Peter Simonski. As a result, the Lions are expected to rapidly improve this season.

Cringila kicked off their campaign with 3-all draw with the Albion Park White Eagles. A goal by Alex Mojsoski in the dying minutes helped them salvage a point.

While there was room for improvement, Beedie saw plenty of positive signs start to emerge during that game.

"What we've got now is a little bit of quality. When I came in last year, that was one of the first things that needed to be addressed," the coach said.

"This year we've got Simonoski, we've got Toby Norval who scored a hat trick against Bulli and a goal against Albion Park, and we've got David Polidoro and Nuno Pires."

After that convincing Cup win, the Lions will start as favourites on Saturday. However, Beedie refused to underestimate the Sharks.

"They're on their home ground and they'll be disappointed with that result last week. I think they'll come out all blazing," he said.

"We went there [Woonona] two weeks ago and had a 4-1 win. But it was 2-1 at one point and I felt like it could have gone either way. They had a couple of good chances to score, and then it was 3-1 and then 4-1 so I don't think the score was a true reflection of the game.

"It's going to be a tight tussle I think [on Saturday]."