United upbeat about return

Bream Bay United return to the Northland Football's premier division when the season gets under way next weekend with the seaside club going through something of a revival based on healthy junior numbers.
The club was a regular in the top flight when numbers at the refinery were booming but haven't featured among the area's top clubs for almost 20 years. First team coach Guy Buffey said there is a positive feeling at the club after a very successful 2010 season.
"We're planning to stay [in the premier league] up as long as we can. It's a family club, based on family principles and we've had a vibrant junior club for a while now and that's strengthened the rest of the club," he said.
Retaining players from the juniors and taking them through the youth grades and into the seniors is a big reason why the club is entering two senior men's teams and two senior women's teams in Northland competition this year.
"The youth and junior leagues are very important to the premiership team, they are our feeders, if you look after them you develop your club for the future," he said.
Buffey, an Englishman, has been in the country for seven years after a short term job at the refinery became a more permanent fixture after he hooked up with a local lass.
"I used to coach rugby at Waipu and my lad Reece changed codes and wanted to play football and he joined Bream Bay and I wandered down one day to have a look and offered my support," he said.
He is one of a number of administrators and coaches who are working to make a difference at the club and it seems to be paying off.
"[Last year] the first division team won the league at a gallop and also won the first division cup and we got to the quarter-finals of the Stafford-Choat Cup where we played the premier league champion and gave them a game and a half," Buffey recalls with some pride.
The match was deadlocked after extra time and eventually Onerahi won 7-6 on penalties but the result gave the club the push it needed to return to the premier division this year.
"It is a big step up for us and it won't be easy but we didn't want to lose the impetus we built up last season and we showed last year in the match with Onerahi that we won't be out of our depth," he said.
The club started the 2011 season well with a mix of first and second team players beating Kamo in a pre-season fixture midweek.
The club's reserve team is a development team packed with juniors coming through, mixed with a bunch of older hands to introduce them into senior competition. Last year they finished second in the second division.
The club uses the Ruakaka Recreation centre as their clubrooms but have also looked at building their own clubhouse.