North Force taste victory

A 5-2 win by North Force over cellar-dwellers Onehunga has eased relegation worries and given the players a sense they belong in the Northern Region First Division.
Even a poor start couldn't stop the visitors from an encouraging victory - the reserve team's first win of the season.
North Force didn't have it all their own way. They were rocked by two early goals from the home side but a vital reply by Chalton Lacour halved the deficit before half-time and got them back in the game.
The visitors dominated the second half to complete the win.
"It was all one-way traffic in the second half, we hammered the hell out of them and scored four goals and it could have been more," player-coach Scott Burgess said.
The return from injury of Steve Schimmel was instrumental in the victory.
"He played up front with Charlton and they played very well together and gave the defence all sorts of problems." Burgess said.
Both strikers ended up with a double, with the other goal scored by young Daniel Ridgley - his first for the North Force senior team.
With Connor Brown out with injury, Leon Stirling took his place in the midfield and made his debut count, putting through a great ball to set up the first goal and picking up the man of the match award.
His performance was an extra bonus for Burgess who is concerned about a lack of depth in the first team. Reserve coach Owen Liiv even came on for his first team debut to get a taste of first team football in case he was needed later in the season.
Burgess dropped into the back four, with Jeremy Rintoul unavailable due to work commitments and apart from jitters early on, the new defensive structure held up well.
A 3-2 away win to Kerikeri at FC Whangarei was the big upset of the Northland Premier League this weekend. Kerikeri issued a warning to the other clubs that they are back in business with the win after a slow start to the season.
League leaders Kamo maintained their good start with another thriller against winless Bream Bay United.
Bream Bay opened the scoring with a goal to Jason Rudman but two goals to Rintoul, who was available for Kamo, saw them back in front until Thomas Molloy squared things up before the break.
Kamo brought their experience into play with goals to Calvin Erick and Paul Cross giving them a two-goal buffer for the first time in the match but a goal to Bream Bay's "Mr T" set a frantic five minutes with the home side pushing hard for an equaliser.
Tikipunga jumped ahead of FC Whangarei into second place with a single goal by Dan Johnston 10 minutes from time earning them three points - and the Dave Wilson Trophy - at the Airport. After Tikipunga had dominated much of the game Onerahi were the better side for much of the final quarter and might have nicked the game if they had taken their chances. Instead the wind forced a defensive error that was then pounced on by Johnston.