THE Mighty Warriors face their biggest test since their revival when they take on Nigeria for a place at the African Women Championships in Equatorial Guinea in November. The senior women's national team dumped Botswana 3-1 on aggregate but left more questions, than answers, about their pedigree to beat Nigeria.

It has been a fairytale for the Mighty Warriors but you get the feeling that the honeymoon is coming to an end.

After grinding out a victory over Botswana, with a performance that was lukewarm, the Mighty Warriors will have to step up a gear to beat the Nigerians.

The Mighty Warriors are yet to beat the Super Falcons since the turn of the millennium and the Zimbabweans have lost heavily every time the teams have met.

But football is changing and there are no longer any big or small teams on the continent.

And, while that should help the Mighty Warriors to fancy their chances, they need to do better than what we saw on Sunday.

The Mighty Warriors have played 17 international matches since returning to competitive action in October 2010 following the arrival of a new leadership headed by the dynamic Mavis Gumbo.

And they have lost only four times.The Mighty Warriors won nine straight matches, including the All-Africa Games qualifiers against Zambia (4-1 aggregate) and Angola (3-1 aggregate).

The team also lifted the Cosafa Championships in July in that stormy final where they ended South Africa's dominance and won 1-0.

They might have disappointed their fans, with a below par show at the All-Africa Games in Maputo, but they rebounded with a good show at the Arab Invitational Cup in Egypt.

A 3-0 victory over a strong Banyana Banyana side last December in the second edition of the Unity Cup cheered their spirits and their fans.

But the demons, which paralysed their machinery in Maputo, were evident against Botswana and the Mighty Warriors have to lift their game to compete against Nigeria.

The first leg is at Rufaro on May 27.Coach Rosemary Mugadza said her charges would rise to the occasion."When we play good teams we raise our game and do very well," said Mugadza.

"The most important thing is we have qualified for the next round."The coach explained the changes, which the technical team has been making, and has relegated Eunice Chibanda, Talent Mandaza and Rufaro Machingura to the bench.

"We might be losing Talent for six months as she would be undergoing military training."So we want to have cover in every department. Rufaro has not been training and playing for the past months and we have to assess her first and couldn't throw her into the deep end.

"We had hoped to use her later but the injury of our goalkeeper affected our game plan."As for Eunice we are trying to make her push herself a bit further as we observed she is more attack-minded and we are looking for a player who is comfortable with the ball and can hold onto the ball at right back," said Mugadza. The Super Falconsare not invincible and were denied a ticket to the London Olympics by Cameroon.

Nigerian football is at its lowest ebb following the failure by the Super Eagles to qualify for the African Cup of Nations. The Super Falcons also fired their coach after losing to Cameroon.

There is reason to believe that the Mighty Warriors can do well and stun the giants.But Mugadza and her team will need to do far better than what they did on Sunday.