The Southern United Youth National League team made a promising start to the pre season by beating its Canterbury counterparts 3-1 in Timaru yesterday.
Both sides will compete in the ASB Youth National League which starts for Southern with an away match against Auckland City Youth on Sunday 4 October.
Canterbury finished a respectable third last year while Southern, after a bright start, was eventually a disappointing ninth.
Coaches Kevin Scoullar and Richard Kerr Bell are confident the side can improve this year and against a strong Canterbury United Youth side, coached by Andy Pitman and Marcus Beaton, the Southerners showed real potential in Timaru.
Canterbury flexed its muscles in a dominant first 20 minutes at Basil Arthur Park, with traditional tight passing that had Southern on the back foot.
Keeper Josh Dijkstra had to make a couple of typically acrobatic saves, as the red midfield led by Boon Ozawa and Renta Yamamoto created chances for Sebastian Schacht and Ryan Stanley.
But it was in form striker Lewis Jackson who rocked the Cantabrians with a spectacular solo goal as he drifted in and laced an unstoppable shot into the top right hand corner of the opposition goal after 37 minutes.
Canterbury equalised seven minutes later when rangy red haired striker Stanley stabbed the ball past Dijkstra in a crowded goalmouth.
However, in the second half, Southern took control when Rahan Ali clipped in for 2-1, then a speedy break up the left by Ben Kiore set up Finn Viljami Vuorenmaa to clinch a 3-1 win.
''We were slow starters, but showed our mettle against a very good Canterbury side,'' Scoullar said.
''These pre season matches are so important for us, to get up to speed for the match against Auckland in a couple of weeks.
'' Also it was important that I saw all our fringe players in real competition against a good footballing side - and all the players stepped up well - which will be a headache in the final team selection.
''We made several positional changes, yet managed to keep our team shape and tactics, consistent, thanks to the work done at training.''
Pitman recognises the value of early games such as these to fine tune his squad: ''We never like losing but there were lots of aspects that we can learn from''.
