The Mariners have been, throughout the first three rounds of the premiership, off the pace but in a big way, conceding the most amount of goals and scoring the fewest of any of the 14 sides in the league.

But in a 3-2 loss in their most recent clash with Bankstown FC Roake saw enough promise to suggest things are turning around - albeit slowly.

It's improvement the Mariners' mentor says will be fast-tracked with the returns of Matt Corben, Nikke Spicer and Black Collins.

"It's been difficult but we're not making excuses," Roake said.

"To be honest, our first focus is to start keeping clean sheets. It's still a focus to do that, I believe we can score at the other end and defensively we need to improve, and we're looking to keep building on that.

"To ensure we're in the game we can't afford to concede goals like we have been."

Certainly the inclusions of Corben, Spicer and Collins will help improve that endeavour, with two thirds of that trio set to be injected into the Mariners' back line.

But it'll take a massive improvement from the entire Western squad to match it with Saturday's opponents, Parramatta FC.

"We're as close to full strength as we've been all season," Roake said ahead of the round four clash, kicking off at 5pm at Proctor Park.