After suffering through three years of frustration, Somerset head into the 2000-20001 soccer season with renewed attitude and hope -- brought on by the introduction of a new head coach.

Former team trainer Norbert Simons has taken over the reins at the west end club and is stressing team harmony, commitment and improved physical fitness as means of returning them to former glory.

Indeed Somerset still stand as the most successful club in the history of local football, collectively having won more silverware than any in the past 40 years.

However, recent times have not been kind, something emphasised just last year when only a last gasp win over Southampton Rangers preserved their spot in the top flight as they finished seventh.

"First of all we have to deal with the mindset,'' said Simons, who occupied the same position once before, in 1987. "We have to redevelop our confidence.

The ability to play is definitely there, but I think that our approach mentally to the game has been lacking over the last few years and what I'm hoping will aid in that is getting more player involvement in decision making.

"On any given day, even when we were relegated, we could beat any team on the Island. So that means that, one, our mental approach was not correct and, two, consistency was not evident.

"This season we're looking to refocus and change old habits, because winning is a habit, so is losing. When you get comfortable with losing it becomes difficult to change.

"We're going to really have to sit down and get into our players' heads this season and try to refocus and redevelop their attitude towards the game and also their appetite. I feel that in the last couple of years our appetite for football and for winning has not been what it should be.'' To that end the Trojans have acquired the services of goalkeeper Timmy Figureido and striker Dwight Basden, both of who were members of 1999 Premier Division champions Vasco.

Basden will add sorely needed punch to the front-line, while Figuerido, along with another new recruit, Andre Hendrickson, will shore up a goalkeeping corps left devastated by a possible career threatening injury to Keenan Tucker.

However, it is the home grown talent that intrigues and concerns Simons all at once.

"We're quite pleased with the players that we have picked up, but I think that the key to our success is not only going to be how they blend in with the team but how we can assimilate our junior players into the programme, because the key to our success will be the junior players coming through. If we can get them in the right mindset and frame to come in and do some work we can be successful.

"It's a long season and we're going to have to rely on fringe players and the players that are trying to break in the side like the juniors along with the veterans,'' noted Simons, who will have Gary (Tuba) Mallory as assistant coach. "We have to find a way to get our junior players to understand that junior football is a little different from senior football and our approach and everything has got to be a little different.'' And while Simons adjusts back to the role of calling the shots, so too must the players adapt to his form of teaching.

This process has had to be accelerated due to the recent revelation that Somerset will be a part of the early season Martonmere Cup competition as a result of Vasco's pull-out from the Premier Division.

Said Simons: "We quickly have to start stepping up a gear. Our plan was to concentrate on our football skills in preparation for the start of the season...that's still our goal, but with the Martonmere Cup coming into play our mindset has to change a bit.

"I'm quite pleased with what I've seen in training. We're trying some things, and it's also a period when they've got to feel me out and understand where I come from.

"When you change coaches there's always that adjustment period which we would want to get over as soon as possible.'' Simons added that he would not tinker too much with the style that the team play, allowing the players available to dictate methods of approach within the basic system employed by the club.

And as a former track runner, the tall, imposing figure will place a premium on fitness.

"We're stressing fitness. For the most part we haven't been as fit as we could or should be and I think that's not just in Somerset.

"We're stressing that a fit player is a player that is alert, that can operate under pressure and stress, especially when fatigue sets in. We try to delay the fatigue factor as long as possible and the fitter you are the less injuries you'll pick up and the less mistakes you'll make when you are tired.'' Simons takes over from Josef Gooden, who worked in tandem with Mallory last season, but will act more as a consultant to Simons, while also playing a role with the club's junior programme.