Essendon Coach James Hird has warned fans not to get too carried away with theclub's pre-season success following the Bombers' 39-point win over Melbourne onThursday night.

The Bombers are undefeated so far in the NAB Cup competition with two wins anda draw to St Kilda in the past couple of weeks.

While Hird admits his young side has made improvements, he hopes theexpectations of fans won't weigh down the club.

""I certainly hope there's not massive expectations,"" Hird said at hispost-match press conference at Etihad Stadium.

""We've got internal expectations to improve in every area and we've donethat in terms of the way we're training and we see improvement on the trainingtrack, we've seen some improvement out on the ground.

""But I'd be hopeful that no one has great expectations on the back of twoNAB Cup games.""

""I think you've got to put it in perspective, it's NAB Cup and we haven'treally actually played a game of football. This is a preparation phase for us,it really is trying to prepare us for round one.""

Hird said the pre-season hit-outs had been especially important in getting gametime into his younger players, with several of them shining in the Bombers win.

Former Frankston defender Michael Hibberd was solid while Essendon's firstround draft pick Dyson Heppell was again impressive finishing with 15 disposalsand two goals.

Hird warned fans not to put too manyexpectations on Heppell as a first year player.

""We've got to be careful not to put the weight of expectation on himbecause Essendon supporters love their players but he should be a very goodplayer.""

""If he keeps doing the basics and keeps turning up to training to trainhard and keeps listening to the coaches and assistant coaches to play the waywe want him to play, he's going to come out of a 10-year-career with hopefullya successful one,"" Hird said.

The focus under the new coach has been an emphasis on defensive pressure, andthere is no doubt that the Bombers have improved in that area, especially intheir forward half.

Essendon had 20 tackles inside their forward 50 to Melbourne's 10, and alsomanaged five goals from turnovers inside their attacking half.

Despite those promising statistics, Hird still believes more improvement isneeded.

""The forward defensive pressure was great for periods of the game, and forperiods of the game it wasn’t as good as we'd like.”

""The finish to the game was terrific, the fact that we had a few guys thatcouldn't come back on with knocks and bruises that we weren't prepared to putback on, a finish like that was really good,” Hird said.

The Bombers face an eight-day break before facing either Collingwood or theSydney Swans in next Friday night's NAB Cup semi-final.

Courtenay Dempsey (concussion), Jake Melksham (cut knee), Travis Colyer(bruised hip) and Michael Hurley (leg) all sustained minor injuries but Hird ishopeful they will be able to recover in time for the semi-final.

The Bombers expect to welcome back captain Jobe Watson, Heath Hocking, SamLonergan, David Zaharakis for the next stage of the NAB Cup, while key positionplayer Scott Gumbleton will most likely sit out another week due to his limitedpreparation over the pre-season.