Soccer: North Force seal their own fate

North Force men's side only have themselves to blame after a dismal 20 minute spell after halftime leaked three goals on their way to going down to North Shore United 5-2.

Director of North Force football Paul Cross said North Force dominated the first half to be up 1-nil, adding they probably should have been at least another goal up by the break.

"One-nil was an unfair reflection," Cross said about Sunday afternoon's game at Toll Stadium. "We had a talk at halftime about going out and maintaining focus, and that's exactly what we didn't do.

"They were a reasonable side [North Shore United] but it was more through our performance rather than theirs why we lost the game. We gave them far too much time and space on the ball, and we got punished for that."

Cross said despite the loss, North Force had played an attractive brand of football and were competitive for long spells throughout the match.

"There's plenty of positives [to take away from the game]," Cross said. "Technically we are as good as the teams we're playing and played some open attractive football.

"We've got a young team who are very inexperienced and we're coming up against seasoned pros. We're competitive for long periods in games but we just lost concentration for 20 minutes and were made to pay."

North Force 16-year-old Charl Compaan knocked a free kick in from 25 yards out with about 15 minutes remaining, while in the first half, captain Scott Burgess sent a corner kick home with his head.

In other North Force games on Sunday, the men's reserves went down 7-1, against North Shore, while the women's side had the only success of the day as they beat Forest Hill Milford 3-0.