Even after my predictions in last week's column, I am still surprised at the start to the football season that North Village have had.

Having been a witness to both of the games in which they gave up seven goals, I am somewhat speechless to think that a championship team could sink to such a low.

The Village Red Army are used to being on the other end of these types of thrashings. Today, I want to take a deeper look into the root of their problem.

Firstly, one of the problems that Village are having is one that they have had suffered for years – being slow starters.

Often at the beginning of the season, they are forced to play younger players with less experience. This year they have tried to encompass and include these players in the Martonmere Cup.

To some, this move may look as if it has backfired and not gone as planned, but at the end of the day I know that their first priority is the league title.

Village, unlike some other clubs, believe in giving their youngsters an opportunity – an opportunity so that they can be groomed for the future.

North Village for years have had, without a doubt, the best junior programme on the Island. They have been able to home grow some of Bermuda's best talent for years and will continue to do so for years to come.

A big problem arises, though, when these players can no longer play junior football. The pool of quality players is so abundant that it is literally impossible for all of them to play at the same time, hence causing many of them to move on to other clubs. In recent years, they have lost the services of two of their prize possessions in Domico Coddington and Zane Hendrickson.

Now the question lies, what is to come from North Village for the remainder of the season?

Well, already they have had some personnel changes with Damon Edwards and Robert Wilson returning to their line-up, which will ultimately make their defence solid. Is this the answer to their shaky start? Partially, it is, but they still lack experience in the goalkeeping position.

When you have set a standard since the inception of your entire programme, the expectations are that you will always be contenders in the championship race.

A great deal is expected of this North Village team even though they have several first team players missing.

From last year's team they have lost Zane Hendrickson to Boulevard, Sammy DeGraff to trials in Brazil, Shayne Hollis, Keishen Bean and Jason Williams to college. Fortunately because of their successful youth programme, there are enough quality players to fill the void. In addition they picked up two very good acquisitions in Jared Peniston and Vincent Minors from Wolves.

Whether these two can fit into the North Village style of playing is yet to be seen.

This past week I managed to witness Village competing against my pick for the league title, Boulevard.

Village seemed to have overcome their defensive woes that hindered them in the Martonmere Cup, but lacked that cutting edge in front of goal that once made them champions.

Clearly on another day, Village could have beaten Boulevard by at least two clear goals – signs of them coming back into their own.

Over the recent years, Village have a rich history of success and the current team will feel the pressure of their fans and their desire to win.

They have adopted a winning mentality at the club and anything less is just unacceptable.

Will Village win the league this year? I do not think so.

However, anybody that rules them out of winning one of the major trophies would be crazy.

Yes, Village lost to PHC heavily in the Charity Cup 7-3 and then again to Dandy Town 7-4, but do not count them out of winning the Martonmere Cup as they have PHC in the semi-finals and they will be gunning for revenge. If Village could go on and win the Martonmere Cup, it would show their true character of being champions.

Will North Village's fundamentally strong programme with a good coaching staff supported by some of the most loyal fans on the Island be able to bounce back from this deficit? Only time will tell!

Look out for next week's article when I will focus on one of Bermuda's most skilful, free-scoring players, Ralph Bean jr.