Football: Plunkett at loss as lead overhauled

North Force coach Bruce Plunkett can't quite work it out.

His side were cruising at Ngaruwahia's Centennial Park on Saturday 3-0 up against the bottom-placed side with 60 minutes gone.

He turned to one of the team's support staff and mentioned how he could afford to relax for a change and enjoy the final minutes of the game - then disaster struck. A goal to the local side was followed in quick succession by a second and then the visitors fell apart.

The home side conceded a third and then with 30 seconds to go - Ngaruawahia scored the winner in a fantastic 4-3 win.

But for Plunkett and the travelling team, it wasn't so fantastic.

"I've been thinking about it ever since then," he said. "But I can't quite put my finger on what went wrong, something happened and there was a disaster."

The result sees North Force back in relegation contention with all three clubs below them making up ground on Saturday.

Chatham Cup competition next week sees them with a chance for a break but it wasn't on the positive note they were hoping for.

In Northland Premier Grade competition, pre-tournament favourites Kerikeri suffered their second successive loss when defeated by Central Brown 3-1.

Kamo and old rivals FC Whangarei took advantage of their defeat to go top of the table with Kamo defeating Madhatters 4-2 and FC beating Tikipunga 1-0.

Jeremy Rintoul scored a double and Paul Cross a long-range strike before Madhatters struck back with two goals and were pushing hard for an equaliser before Willi Tegerobo grabbed Kamo's fourth.

FC didn't have it all their own way against Tikipunga either, with the visitors peppering their goal unsuccessfully in search of an equaliser.