Tamworth FC may have added five new players to their all-conquering side from last season, but the same ruthlessness that propelled them to the premiership was evident in round one of the new season.
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By beating East Armidale 8-0 in Arimdale, Tamworth FC extended their Premier League unbeaten sequence to 21 games. They were undefeated last season.
FC coach Greg Bartlett said scoring five second-half goals was the "most pleasing" part of the game, as it reminded him of the 2018 side's hunger for goals.
"They went on with the job [against Easts]," he said. "They just didn't sit back on their heels. So, yeah, it was quite good."
They went on with the job. They just didn't sit back on their heels.
- Greg Bartlett
"And that's what they were like last year," he added. "A lot of the time it might have been 0-0 at halftime and we'd score three or four in the second half."
FC forward Kurt Barrow, the comp's No.2 goalscorer in 2018, netted five on Saturday. Bartlett said of Barrow: "He's started where he left off." Just as FC have done.
Another FC forward, Cameron Potter - the scorer of FC's only goal in the 2016 reserve-grade grand final defeat of Demon Knights - netted a goal against Easts. He is back at the club after some two years living in Newcastle.
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Bartlett said Potter was "going well", adding: "Cameron just lacks a little bit of confidence. But he scored a goal from a header [against Easts] and he says he can't head the ball ... So I had a bit of a crack at him about that, but it was all in jest, of course."
Bartlett said Potter would again "be an asset to the club" - and not just on the field.
He said the player had an "infectious" personality and, as such, was a "good bloke to be around".
Unsurprisingly given the season's infancy, and the fact that he has several players due to return to the side, Bartlett believes that FC will get "a fair bit better".
And despite the lopsided scoreline on Saturday, he praised East Armidale's fighting spirit.
"So it wasn't just a pushover: they tried right to the end," he said.