North 3, Bels 1

EVEN after one league game it is obvious that North will again be the team to watch this season. Superb second-half goals from Jon Veron and Tom Duff sealed a deserved win for the chocolate-and-blues at Northfield and even had opposing coach Ray Queripel singing their praises.

‘They were quality goals we lost to and any team who can defend against that, well, fair play to them,’ he said after watching his Bels side slip to a second successive defeat.

North may have lost quality players such as Gavin Le Page and Simon Johns to their travels, and Dave Rihoy is currently only able to watch from the sidelines as he recovers from injury, but there is still a lot of talent in this outfit.

Darren Martin’s class has long been recognised and if he stays fit he will be a tremendous asset in the middle of the park while other youngsters such as Kyle Stone, Craig Young and Ollie McKenzie are slotting into the line-up seamlessly.

They have character, too, as shown last night as they fought back from going a goal behind in the 17th minute.

Former Northerner Craig Cameron sliced his volley horribly, but fortuitously it fell to Simon Marley and, with the defence wrong-footed, he slotted the ball home.

The home fans only had to wait 10 minutes for an equaliser.

Right-back Young drove down his flank and delivered a dangerous cross that got the faintest of touches from Veron’s head, before an unfortunate Sam Cochrane put the ball past his own goalkeeper.

Into the second half and North began to dominate and the rewards came with it.

The goal that put them ahead on the hour mark was a belter as Veron, who had pulled away from the bunch as a free-kick was delivered into the box, got the ball just outside the penalty area and unleashed a fierce drive into the roof of the net.

The three points were sewn up 15 minutes later when Stone played a beautiful ball for Veron to run onto down the left-hand side of the penalty area and his pull-back was calmly rammed home by Duff.

‘We played some really good football tonight and scored some nice goals,’ said a delighted North coach Geoff Tardif.

‘I know it is going to be a long, hard season with some players missing but we look like a team who can play football and it is worth mentioning how the players are coming on now with Grant Chalmers and Phil Corbet helping me.

‘I can already see that a few things they have passed on have sunk in and they are making it enjoyable for the lads.’

Queripel remains upbeat despite having fixtures against Sylvans and St Martin’s coming up in the next week.

‘After Saturday [when Bels lost

4-1 to Rovers], everything is a positive. We have been beaten by two nice goals tonight rather than two bad ones.

‘They have not been silly goals we have conceded like they were against Rovers and the players did give it their all out there,’ he said.