Thistle's first game happens to be against Christchurch United at 10am tomorrow. Flood, a centreback when he played for Thistle, is now a striker, which means he could come up against players who were his defensive partners last year.
The Christchurch United u19s are coached by Paul Ifill, who has had a professonal football career with Millwall, Sheffield United, Crystal Palace and Wellington Phoenix.
He is the head coach of the Christchurch United first team, who are in the 10-team National League Championship.
The other teams in Thistle's u19 group are Ngaruawahia, Whanganui Athletic, Manurewa and Albany United.
Teams play three games tomorrow and two, possibly three, on Sunday.
The men's competition is split into a 24-team main championship, with relegation for the bottom two teams, and a 24-team satellite competition, with the right to promotion for the top two teams.
Thistle and the rest of their group are in the satellite competition.
Their games tomorrow are timed for 10am, 1pm and 4pm. On Sunday they play at 10am and 1pm.
If the Jags make the top two in their group, they play a quarterfinal at 5pm on Sunday.
Satellite semifinals are set for 8am on Monday, with the final set for 11am.
All satellite games will be played at Park Island and will run for 25 minutes each way in group games and quarterfinals, and 30 minutes each way in semifinals and the final.
Thistle first-team coach Garrett Blair has been coaching the u19 squad with the help of Mark Baple, Raydon Semmens and Mitchell Stewart-Hill.
They have drawn players mainly from the Thistle first, second and youth teams.
First-team squad members Cory Thompson, Oska Smith, Leo Maisey and Andre Baple (formerly Riley) are expected to play leading roles in the side.
Second-team players in the u19 squad include goalkeeper Tom Talbot and Levi Julies, while Thistle Youth contribute Max Kume, Luke Stoltz, Dan Walters, Shai Avni and James Talbot (younger brother of Tom).
Blair said Thompson would be their midfield general, sitting at the base of the midfield three, breaking up opponents' play and starting counter-attacks.
Young and Julies were looking good for the attacking midfield roles, while Kume and McAuley would feature in the back four.
Maisey would be ideal as attack leader, well supported by the pace and skill of Andre Baple and Smith.
The u19s had a practice game, 25 minutes each way, against Wainui on Wednesday night. It finished 5-5.
“It was a good hit-out against a team who know how to play football,” Blair said.
“When we hit them on the counter, we were able to put them under quite a bit of pressure.”
Blair said he was excited by the potential of the side.
“It's a young team,” he said.
“The oldest player will be Leo (Maisey) at 18; the rest will be 17 and under. We're looking to give the boys experience.
“We want to go out and play a really positive brand of football.”
