According to North Village coach Scott Morton, the three key elements for success are self-discipline, perseverance and responsibility.

And this winning combination proved pivotal as Village landed their first Premier Division championship in 23 years on Sunday.

“I try to get the players to accept responsibility and once they achieve that, then they can gel much quicker as a unit and work towards their goals,” said Morton. “Therefore, when situations or problems do arise each individual can look within themselves and see if they have achieved them or are close to achieving them.

“It is just like they say, a ship without a rudder in the wind just drifts anywhere, but once you have a rudder you can steer yourself in the right direction.”

Only in his second year at the helm of Village, having taken over when Kenny Thompson was promoted to the rank of technical director, the 33 year-old former Dandy Town schemer has achieved success at an alarming rate.

But modestly, he stressed it was a privilege to be in charge of so many good players. “It's a lot easier to coach talented players and I feel that I have some of the most talented players in Bermuda,” he said.

“Basically, I just have to guide them in the right direction and make them understand that it is a team effort.”

Morton paid further tribute to his players, noting they had “to live up to the demands of the club,” and to the other club officials.

“We have an assistant coach (Maceo Dill), a manager (Mario Place) and a medic (Naquita Dill) and Alan Smith (volunteer) and that is just with the first team. Each one of the junior teams have the same, except for a medic.

“So as you can see there are many people that are designated to do certain things and it is certainly a team effort.”

With the league championship tucked away in the display cabinet, coach Morton said it was “a great weight off of his shoulders.”

“As coach, I had to take that load onto my own shoulders to protect the players, because they are on the field and also they need to be as relaxed and composed as possible, but more importantly they had to understand just what it was that remained at stake (league title),” he said.

“As the coach I was prepared to do that. During the beginning of the season I had to absorb the down period and in the end I believe that's what makes you a better person.”

Village looked down and out when they suffered a humiliating 1-0 early season home defeat to St. George's, before ending up on the losing end to Devonshire Cougars in the Martonmere Cup final in November. But Morton said that period served to motivate his team and he was glad that they experienced a down side early on.

“I never mentioned it to any of the players, but I was glad we went through that period because at the beginning of the season one of my main objectives was to try and peak the team at the righttime,” he said.

“During previous years we had always started out fast and then died off just after Christmas.

“So what I did this time around was to utilise some of the younger players at the beginning of the season to keep the older ones more hungry.

“This also gave the youngsters valuable experience in the first team, so if I needed them down the stretch they would be prepared for the occasion having already put time in on the field.”

Now on the verge of attaining even more success - Village meet Somerset Eagles in the FA Cup semi-final and Dandy Town or PHC in the Friendship Trophy final - the coach reflected on predecessor Thompson's comments that this could be the beginning of another great chapter in Village's history.

“I think that Kenny's comments are just a reflection of what he and everyone else within the North Village community knows as far as the club's extensive depth is concerned,” he said.

“We have at least six to eight quality players who are away in school and at any given time they can step back in and do the required job along with the young players already here. And with our experienced players who still have at least five competitive years of soccer left in them, who knows what's to come for this programme?”