"They've never accepted that they would be relegated and that's why our goal difference has remained so good all season and that's ended up being important," Plunkett said.
Their goal difference turned into a major factor in their end of season escape with North Force now level on points with Metro but with a far superior goal differential.
"We'd have to lose 7-0, 5-0 and 4-0 in our three remaining games for us to go down and I can't see us letting that happen now, so we're 99.9 per cent sure of staying up," Plunkett said.
Metro have completed their season and Albany have one game remaining and now trail North Force by two points.
The home side started off their fateful day typically flat. They were a goal down within seven minutes before surging back into the game with two late first half goals to Scott Burgess and Murray Wootten.
Darren Green converted a penalty 10 minutes into the second spell to put the match beyond the travelling side in the atrocious conditions which resulted in the new Tikipunga pitch becoming waterlogged.
"It was hard to kick a ball around in the last half an hour but who cares, we won and that's all that counts," the relieved coach said.
Kamo celebrated North Force's survival by clinching the Northland Premier League on the same day. They beat Tikipunga 1-0 to go eight points clear at the top of the table and with just two matches remaining, they will look to complete their league programme unbeaten.
Central Brown and Kerikeri will battle it out for second place over the two remaining rounds.
