An unequivocal 4-1 pre-season win over Auckland club Metro on Saturday has North Force footballers counting down to the start of the season in two weeks.
North Force started the match at Tikipunga Park slowly, and were 0-1 down early on before an own goal and a Scott Burgess strike saw
them 2-1 ahead at the break.
A well taken goal by Calvin Erick and another to Burgess saw them come away with a comfortable win over a good Northern League side, which is an encouraging sign for central defender Bruce Plunkett.
"Metro are a decent side and we made them look second-rate today ... they had three players still involved in the summer [national league] competition but even so we're a better side than last year."
Given Steve Schimmel and Sammy Oso were unavailable for Saturday's match, it was a very good result.
"I'd say on the back of that we'd have to be quietly confident of another good year," he added.
The addition of Jason Teal and Schimmel will bring plenty of experience and talent to the team for this year's campaign, while the North Force production line has rolled out youngsters Matt Ward and Carlin Harris for the 2009 season.
Plunkett is confident the team will once again be frontrunners in the US1 League after making the playoffs in the league's inaugural season last year.
"We're looking to make the playoffs again and take it from there, but to be honest it'll be a bit harder to do that this year.
"We took a lot of teams by surprise last year because they didn't think we'd be a threat, this year they'll be switched on to us but we're a better side, so I think we'll be all right," Plunkett said.
The experienced defender said it was good to be able to change their method of play this year.
North Force face another tough test this Saturday, again at Tikipunga, when they play US1 runners-up Eastern Suburbs. Their opening match is against Waitakere City on March 28.
