Skipper leads way as win gets Force back on track

North Force's Keegan Baddeley led from the front during his side's clash with Cambridge  at Tikipunga Sports Park, helping his side to a comfortable 3-1 victory.
Baddeley was made skipper for Saturday's Northern Region Division One match, with the side's usual captain, Scott Burgess, and Jeremy Rintoul who captained North Force  last weekend, both sidelined with knee injuries.
The striker impressed from the outset, and got his side out to a 2-0 lead after  20 minutes, with two cleanly shot goals.
"Keegan was outstanding, and did a great job for us - he played well," coach Bruce Plunkett said.
Cambridge put their only goal away shortly after Baddeley scored his second, clawing the score back to 2-1, but a successful penalty by Daniel Lavalle increased the gap once more heading into half time.
The second half was goal-less, but North Force continued to apply pressure on their visitors, as playing conditions worsened.
"It should have been a bigger score, we missed so many easy chances in the second half, and Cambridge hardly got out of their half," Plunkett said.
Mark Ruddell was back in the line-up after suffering an injury in the pre-season, and it was a huge boost to have the quality and consistent player back, Plunkett said.
Overall, it was a vastly improved performance from North Force who were sitting at the top of the table, but unexpectedly lost 2-1 to cellar dwellers Pukekohe last weekend. Second placed Ellerslie caught the leaders when they won their match against Cambridge, and now share the top spot with North Force.
 Ellerslie also won on Saturday against Papakura, who North Force play next weekend, but the crunch match will come when North Force host Ellerslie
on June 26 in the second to last game before play-offs.
"The ironic thing was, Cambridge were a much better team than Pukekohe . . . but we played well," the coach said.
Yesterday North Force women went up against Glenfield Reserves away in the United Soccer 1 Women's Championship,  and came home with a 2-1 win.
North Force's centre-midfielder Abbey Main found the back of the net during the first half and at halftime the score was level 1-1 after Glenfield equalised late in the first 45.
Twenty minutes into the second half, striker Jasmine Walden extended the visitor's lead, which they held onto for the rest of the match, played in appalling weather.
At Morningside Park, FC Whangarei's bad run continued in the US1 Men's Championship, when they went down 1-3 to Warkworth on Saturday, after drawing 3-3 with them during the first round of the competition.
FC Whangarei sit in seventh place, above Norwest at the foot of the table.