Football: Simple mistakes mar Northland FC season opener against Bohemian Celtic

The Northland FC first team shake hands ahead of their season-opening fixture against Unimount Bohemian Celtic at Bill McKinlay Park in Auckland on Saturday. Photo / Supplied

It only took five minutes for Northland FC to do all but throw away their opening game of the season against Unimount Bohemian Celtic in Auckland on Saturday.

The Northland FC first team started their 2019 campaign in division two of the Lotto NRFL competition in a tentative but strong fashion at Bill McKinlay Park, playing well into the wind and going into halftime the better of the two sides with the score locked at 0-0.

After the home side took the lead in the 53rd minute, they only needed another five minutes to double their lead when Northland conceded possession cheaply as they looked to play it out from the defence.

"I'm disappointed and I know the guys are too," head coach Owen Liiv said.

"We're a young, energetic team but when we didn't have the ball, we sat back and gave them time and space so we'll be looking to work on that."

Unforced errors and failing to press their advantage after halftime were the key issues in Liiv's eyes, who said the team put in a good defensive effort playing into the wind in the first half.

He said giving the ball away cheaply to concede a second goal directly after the first was hard for his players to come back from.

"It's often the case you're rocking after the first one and then you get hit with a killer blow with the second.

"We didn't adapt well enough to the situation where we contained them in the first half and held them at arms length, we should have gone for the kill in second half but we didn't."

It was a different story for the Northland FC reserves who scored four unanswered goals to win against Bohemian Celtic reserves earlier on Saturday.

After a member of the opposition was red-carded for handling the ball on his own goal-line to prevent a certain goal for Northland, the visitors slotted the penalty and went on to control the game against 10 men.

"The result for the reserves is really impressive, I just hope we can translate that to the first team," Liiv said.

Liiv's side will get a chance to get their season back on track in front of a home crowd when they take on Ngongotaha at Tikipunga Park 1 at 3pm on Saturday, April 6. The reserves will play against the Ngongotaha reserves at the same venue at 12.30pm.

Results

Premier:

Bohemian Celtic 2 (Murphy 53", Patterson 58") beat Northland FC 0

Premier Reserves:

Northland FC Reserves 4 (Levell (pen) 12", Manjala 21", Prowse 34", Thorne 83") beat Bohemian Celtic Reserves 0