Devonshire Colts' stalwart Shannon Burgess attributes a late start to pre-season training and a lack of match fitness as reasons for his team's disappointing start to the new campaign.

Colts, reigning Martonmere Cup champions, have suffered back to back defeats to North Village in their opening two fixtures of the season - first in the Charity Cup final (2-0) and then in last week's Martonmere Cup opener (2-1).

"Unfortunately we got a late start to pre-season training and a lot of our key players aren't match fit," admitted Burgess yesterday.

"It's been rough in that we've missed them and these players are a critical part of the team.

"We are still a long way away from where we want to be as far as putting our strongest team on the field and playing to the level where we know we can play at."

Still, Burgess is confident his team's fortunes will change for the better.

"It's still early in the season and the guys aren't discouraged at all," he said. "They (players) realise we still have a lot of work to do as far as implementing the game plan that has been laid out for us. And as we become match fit and guys realise the level they need to play at . . . I think things will get much better."

Burgess said the unexpected visit by Hurricane Fabian disrupted the team's "intensity".

"Leading up the original date (start to Martonmere Cup) we saw the momentum and intensity in training," he noted. "But after the hurricane a lot of guys had other pressing issues to deal with as a result and the intensity just hasn't been there since."

Colts have also been hit by injuries to a few key players. Presently, striker Aljame Zuill, Kevin Simpson along with Burgess himself are nursing injuries while midfielder Mark (Beaver) Ray and Peter Sampson have yet to report to training.

Burgess added: "It's still early and most teams aren't prepared to play at 3 p.m. in the afternoon in September. So you are not going to see the best of any team right now. I guess every team is going to look to improve on their first and second performance and hopefully we can do that."

Looking ahead to the new season, Burgess said his team were seeking to improve on last season's performance in the league which saw Colts finish fourth.

"Obviously you always look to do better than the previous year," he said. "Our main priority is to do better in the league than we did last year. So, of course, we will be looking to improve on that performance.

"Two years in a row we have been at the top of the table at the midway point but haven't had successful second halves. So we want to improve on our second half performance. And at the end of the day it is up to the players to put their best foot forward."