Force given soft draw in night series

The Bunbury Forum Force will have a chance to ease into its second State Premier League campaign after drawing a cushy group in the pre-season Night Series competition.

Bunbury is the only Premier League club in Group B and is the hot favourite to topple Division One outfits Rockingham City, Fremantle Spirit and Mandurah City and move into the knockout stages of the tournament.

The Force will open their campaign on January 25 against Div 1 runners-up Mandurah before meeting Rockingham City on February 1 and Fremantle on February 10.

All Bunbury’s games will be played under lights at Hyundai Stadium in Mandurah. New coach Micky Cairns said he expected to get through the group stage and flagged it as a chance to blood young talent.

“At this stage we’ll probably have a squad of 20 or so. I’ll probably use everyone,” he said.

“We’ll really use the competition as a fitness program. I’m not really too worried about it if we don’t go too much further than the group stage.”

Football West chief executive Peter Hugg said the competition was an important part of many clubs’ pre-season preparations

“This tournament is a great opportunity for teams to get match-fit for the regular season and it is a great chance for fans to see the new faces,” he said.

“We saw plenty of local rivalries formed in the season just gone, and they are only going to get bigger and better with how the fixtures have panned out.”

Last year Bunbury reached the semi-finals of the Night Series before losing 6-2 to Bayswater.