Ellerslie rout North Force

North Force struggled against a tenacious Ellerslie team in poor playing conditions at Michaels Ave in Auckland, going down 7-0.
North Force's game against Ellerslie was their second engagement of the Easter weekend.
The Northern side narrowly lost to Eastern Suburbs 1-0 on Saturday at Madills Farm Reserve and despite the loss were relatively happy with how they performed.
They had been feeling confident ahead of of yesterday's game against a side who had gained mixed results so far in the Northern Region Men's Division One competition.
Both teams were evenly matched during the first half playing on a pitted pitch at Michaels Ave, but Ellerslie were able to put two shots at goal away, thanks to a tight defence which allowed their midfielders to find space through the centre.
North Force assistant manager Brad Flower said it was Ellerslie's sheer speed and their long balls that saw them edge out their visitors.
He said: "We probably played better football during the first half, except they put their shots away, whereas we didn't.
"All their goals were scored off long balls bypassing our midfield. They were able to keep finding the gaps."
Heading into the second half 2-0 down, North Force were left shell-shocked when Ellerslie scored two quick successive goals, leaving their visitors in attack/panic mode, and the team forgot about defence for a while, Flower said.
Although North Force recovered to defend more efficiently in the latter stages of the game, Ellerslie managed to extend their lead to 7-0.
North Force were forced to reshuffle their backline for this game, which upset their momentum a little, Flower added.
Jeremy Rintoul was unavailable and Sam Rout came in to replace him at centreback, while Daniel Lavelle and Steve Schimmel, who has an injured groin, were also unavailable.
Skipper Scott Burgess moved from the midfield to the forwards line and Daniel Ridgely came into the midfield from his usual spot out wide.
The reserve players who stepped up to fill in for the senior side performed very well, such as Jamie Blowers, who replaced Cody Lacour at right back when Lacour tweaked a hamstring in the first half.
Meanwhile, North Force Reserves also went down 5-0. While there were no excuses about the losses, travelling to Auckland twice in one weekend was quite taxing on the both the reserves and senior players, Flower said.
North Force will be looking for an improved performance this Saturday, when they host Manurewa at Kamo Sports Park, kicking off at 2.45pm.