Green Island made a bright start in the first Footballsouth Premier League match of the season, beating Northern 2-0 at Forsyth Barr Stadium on Saturday.
It was a party-pooping performance from the Island, since Northern had mustered a large crowd to celebrate the club's 125th jubilee, and players from earlier matches had gathered to cheer on the Magpies.
New Green Island coach Craig Doble concentrated more on the side's slick passing start, and he did not have to wait long to start his own celebrations, when striker Taylor McCormack scored after 10 minutes.
Doble is a part of the Burnley coaching set-up which is based in Australia. He has come to Dunedin and former Green Island and Otago United coach Malcolm Fleming leaves for Perth this week for a spell.
Green Island certainly showed composure on the ball, keeping good ball possession for lengthy periods, plus genuine pace in attack, despite the absence of Joel Stevens.
Northern, which finished second-bottom last year and also has a new coach in Murray Devereux, stayed reasonably tight in defence.
The Wilkinson brothers, Craig and Arran, combined with centreback Jeff Satterthwaite to shield keeper Blair Brown, who had a solid match.
It might have been 1-1 at the break when Jim Headley found space in front of Green Island keeper Matt McKay but screwed his shot wide of the open goal.
Northern was more competitive in the second half and mounted several breaks, but no-nonsense defending by Dan Rutter and Liam Dungey kept the Island goal intact.
After more steady pressure, Green Island made the match safe with a 75th-minute goal by Jesse Wright.
