The FootballSouth women's team faces another intimidating national league match at the Caledonian Ground at noon tomorrow.
Last week, FootballSouth was beaten 4-0 by Northern in the opening round of the competition.
''It sounds worse than it was, and the women played very well for lengthy periods,'' coach David Martin-Chambers said.
''To put things into perspective, Northern is chasing its third consecutive national championship win.
''FootballSouth just found the pace pretty demanding, and we never play on artificial turf, which they do all the time up north.''
The coach also found maintaining the balance of youth and senior players tricky.
''We have to have eight under-19 players in our squad, and five of them must be on the field at all times, so making substitutions can be complicated,'' he said.
Morale, however, was still high during midweek practice at De Carle Park, where 26 women worked hard under the watchful eyes of Martin-Chambers, Andrew Whittaker and Graeme Smaill.
FootballSouth will need all its energy at the Caledonian Ground, since its fancied Auckland opponent was surprisingly beaten 3-0 last week by Central, despite fielding several New Zealand players.
For Auckland, tomorrow's game will be seen as a must-win clash.
Mainland Pride opened the season with a 3-0 win over the Under-17 Selection, with Aimee Phillips (two), and Lauren Dabner getting the goals. The most even encounter was a 2-2 draw between Central and Waikato-BOP.
FootballSouth
Women's squad
Lara Malcolm, Coral Seath, Holly Smaill, Kushla Glover, Elise Mamanu-Gray, Shontelle Smith, Alex McIntosh, Una Madden, Sam Muirhead, Chelsea Whittaker, Annie Gilchrist, Kate Guildford, Jordyn Walker, Narinda Kaur, Samantha Williams, Tessa Nicol.
