Launceston City coach Lino Sciulli said his squad depth has been given a thorough workout by the visit of two perennial NPL Tasmania title contenders in the space of four days.
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Having gone down 2-1 to champions Devonport on Wednesday, City struggled to back up so quickly, losing 5-1 to South Hobart.
"We could not have asked for two tougher games but now we've got over that we can get onto the real season," Sciulli said.
"The bigger clubs have bigger depth and we're struggling at the moment. We tried hard, but we were outclassed."
Late arrivers at Prospect Park are heavily punished as both this week's games witnessed first-minute goals.
But unlike Noah Mies' opportunistic opener against Strikers, it was South's Nick Morton who struck early from a free-kick on the edge of the box.
It could have been a different story had Jarrod Linger's 13th-minute effort hit the net rather than the post but the visitors took full advantage of that wake-up call, extending their lead in bizarre fashion.
Replacing Lachlan Clark in the home goal, David Smith's attempted clearance struck the back of striker Jack Turner and looped back over the disbelieving keeper into the net.
Having watched his opponents' match on Wednesday, South coach Ken Morton seemed to have all the answers and saw his son Nick claim his second from Adam Gorrie's cross on 38 minutes.
Smith was hellbent on making amends for his error, saving from a clean-through Gilly Desouza and then Turner at point-blank range but seconds after Morton headed another Gorrie cross against the bar Turner poached his second.
Mies reduced the arrears with a towering 77th-minute header before Turner cashed in on an under-hit backpass to bag a hat-trick.
Riverside Olympic improved on their opening-match loss to Glenorchy but still returned from the longest away trip of the season pointless.
Rhys Kinslow pounced on defensive uncertainty to give the Roos a ninth-minute lead but American import Horacio Gutierrez Junior equalised five minutes later and Danny Cowen completed a 2-1 win with an excellent 54th-minute header.
Olympic coach Alex Gaetani said teenage goalkeeper Jarrod Hill was his team's best player for the second time in a week with support from long-time junior teammates Liam Gilmore and Jasper King. Captain Ethan Olner was again among the standouts while Argentinean Luca Vigilante completed his first 90 minutes.
"We learned that we can definitely compete with these sides," Gaetani said. "We were a lot more competitive than last week and Kingborough are a very good team so to compete with them away from home is a real positive.
"But I still think there's a lot of improvement to come."
Daniel Syson scored for the third game running as Devonport beat Glenorchy 4-0 with other goals from Edward Bidwell, Connor Parke and another Argentine, Ignacio Giampaoli.