Darrel Mole steps up to coach South United in 2021

Over 30 of them were spent playing the game.

Some of it in Sydney for the likes of Milperra, Padstow and Engadine while he finished up playing about seven years ago with South United.

Along with experience on the pitch, Mole has spent plenty of time with the clipboard in his hand.

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The school teacher has coached a range of primary school sides, including representative teams, for over a decade.

Despite all that experience, a thought kept popping up in Mole's head as he prepared to link back up with South United to coach the Premier Division side: "Will I be able to do this properly?"

He quickly realised he needn't worry and with two games under his belt at South United, the first senior side he's coached, Mole's really enjoying it.

"That's all gone," Mole said of his concerns.

"The boys have been good, they've accepted me.

"I'm not there to teach them how to play soccer. They have plenty of skills. It's my job to work with them and get them to use those skills as a team."

There was a couple factors that helped Mole ease into the new role.

The first was that he'd mentored a number of the players before - Mole could rattle off seven names at the top of his head - while coaching South Tamworth Public School and North West representative teams.

The second was the support of the club and committee - in particular first grade manager Wes Clark.

"Wes is brilliant and he's been a great supporter of this team and club for a long time," Mole said.

"The committee, too. They've been there for a long time and they're a really committed group of people."

South United head into round three of the Northern Inland Premier Division against Tamworth FC searching for their first win.

They have gone down to Gunnedah FC and Oxley Vale Attunga but Mole said he was "more than happy" with the performances of the side.

"We didn't have our full squad last week and the week before we lost our goalkeeper 30 to 35 minutes into the game and had to play with 10 players," Mole said.

"We played the reigning premiers last week and held them to 3-2. And to be honest, I think that was a good result for them. I think it was a pretty tight game. It was certainly a good game so I'm happy where we're at."

South United and Tamworth FC meet at Johnson Field on Saturday. FC are also searching for their first points of the season after a round one bye and a 2-1 loss to Northies last week.

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