Handed the honour of being the first curtain-raiser match in the state's festival of football, the early Women's Super League pace-setters put in a strong showing at UTAS Stadium but went down 2-0 to reigning champions Olympia.

With the Australian-Belgian-English combination of Madi Gilpin, Sofie Verhaegen and Jess Robinson controlling midfield, United dominated much of the play but couldn't create the opportunities for lone strike Dani Gunton and were undone by a goal midway through each half.

Co-coach Frank Compton experienced a combination of pride and disappointment.

"It was a brilliant experience for the girls and they had a great time," he said.

"Maybe we did not quite put our best performance out there and that's our fault. Our final ball was lacking and I don't feel Olympia had to be at their best to beat us but it's something we will learn from.

"We defended extremely well. Individually we had good performances but not a team performance. But we will learn from it and still believe we can do something this season."

Reserving extra praise for the central defensive partnership of Nichola Clark and Gonya Luate, as well as the midfield triumvirate, Compton said club president Anthony Coulson had been buzzing all week about the opportunity.

"We said before the game that win, lose or draw this was real recognition for the club and ahead of where we expected to be by this stage. Three points would have made it perfect but we will play them twice more and know we can beat them."

With Imogen McCormick taking over in goal and Izzy Cootes coming in at left-back, United dropped Luate into defence, freeing up Gunton to feed the European playmakers, all to the booming chorus of Lynden Prince's instructions echoing over the North Esk River.

Verhaegen ran the show and, on the same pitch she will grace for the Tassie rep team on Thursday, Robinson became more of a threat as the game wore on, going closest with a succession of late long-range efforts.

Despite their endeavours, United fell behind on 22 minutes when a Leah Gubb free-kick flew past McCormick.

Bonnie Davies' sealer packed even more punch 17 minutes from time just as United seemed like they might grab an equaliser.

Having started the season with three wins and 16 goals, United have lost two on the trot with this also being their first failure to score.