SOCCER - Coach finds positives in defeat

Different year, same result, but the good news is the gap between the country's elite teams and Northland's best female football players appears to be narrowing.
For the second year in a row Northland's top team has been booted out of the Uncle Toby's national knockout cup by Auckland NFSL premier league club, Three Kings United.
This year it was Northland-wide franchise team North Force, playing in their first season in the women's competition, who were beaten 4-0 at Auckland's Keith Hay Park on Sunday.
The result was seen as a big step forward by North Force coach Adam Hayne. He said the Three Kings United side they faced this year were far superior to the one that travelled to Whangarei last season and inflicted a 6-0 victory over FC Whangarei.
The team included five current internationals and five under-20 players, recently returned from a successful tour of South America.
"They (Three Kings) were technically gifted, their movement and passing and communication were just out of this world - they were two steps ahead of us throughout - which only shows just how well we played," Hayne said.
Several of the North Force team, including Hayne as coach, were a part of the quarterfinal loss at Morningside Park last year and took heart from the way they played on Sunday.
"Last year we played a very defensive formation against them ... this year we decided to play to the same tactics we use every week," Hayne said.
The tactics worked well with North Force playing the wide ball out of defence and attempting to break down the flanks.
Against the quality of opposition they met on Saturday, they barely registered half a dozen shots on goal in the match, but Hayne said they might have ended the day with a goal or two but for the quality of the Three Kings keeper.
"The girls played fantastically, the only flaw in our defence was that we let them have too much time on the ball and we let them get too many crosses in," he said.
Kathy Mortimer, Kaitlyn McLean and Alesha Hodgson were responsible for challenging the Three Kings attack in midfield and got through a mountain of work.
Gabriel Britton was awarded player of the day for her great work in the heart of the North Force defence, constantly dispossessing the Three Kings' strikers.
It was a good experience for the team - it gave them an insight into what they are aspiring to next season.
As the top team in the US1 competition, they are on track for promotion to the NFSL premier division. Should they be promoted they will be meeting teams as good as Three Kings every week.
The team conceded two unlucky goals in the first spell but were still encouraged by their performance and keen to try and get back into the game in the second spell.
It didn't happen and North Force conceded two more, but unlike last season they were never overrun and continued to stick to their game plan, playing good football in the face of top opposition.