At last, North gets ahead of the count with 27-point win over Sturt North Adelaide onballer Max Thring beats Sturt's Adam Thomson to the ball in the match at Prospect Oval. NORTH Adelaide coach Josh Francou has praised his team for finally delivering on expectation with its 27-point win over Sturt maintaining an unbeaten start to the season. For the first time in Francou's three years in charge at Prospect the Roosters have started a season 2-0 as opposed to 0-2. But it wasn't without a fight as the Double Blues led at half-time and pushed the home side all the way to the final siren. "If you look at the last two years since I've been here, we've had a history of having a good win then mentally falling apart and not being able to back games up," Francou said. That was a focus this week and I was really disappointed at half-time - our tackling pressure was non-existent. But to the guys' credit in the third quarter we started getting some control. The naturally competitive guys keep working and eventually the rewards will come. Leading the way was Sydney Swans recruit Nathan Gordon who was outstanding with 31 disposals and posed a serious threat in the air when he went forward. He put an exclamation mark on his performance with a stunning leap and goal from 50m on the run in the final term. Lewis Johnston kicked seven goals and Norwood recruit Tom Langford dominated with his role switching from forward to ruck and Will Dalwood was an unsung hero in defence. Sturt's side was at times unrecognisable from that which beat Port Adelaide last week, missing five AFL players. The Double Blues lost Sam Kerridge, Jack Hombsch and Aidan Riley during the week, then Angus Graham and Brodie Martin were late withdrawals. That was always going to be the big question over Sturt this season - what have they got when the AFL boys aren't there? The answer is, plenty. Virtual unknowns like Guy Page, James Battersby and Nick Pearce played their roles perfectly and the emergence of John Greenslade, Tom Hurley and Levi Krause represented the club's next generation of midfielders. Sturt's cause wasn't helped when it lost both Michael Coad and Luke Crane to injury in the third term and the Roosters finished full of running with six goals to three in the final quarter. But Double Blues coach Seamus Maloney said there were enough positives from the loss to temper some of the disappointment. "I think we're really making progress," Maloney said. We really had our moments in the first half and a couple of injuries hurt us but the boys' effort was really good. We've got some things to work on - get better defensively over the whole ground, shut balls down by not giving up that dangerous space out the back, but there are good signs to work with. That's what we talked about after the game, our good is good enough I think, it's just those flat patches in games hurting us. BEST PLAYERS: North: Gordon, Langford, Johnston, Dalwood, M. Thring, Blee. Sturt: Greenslade, Kane, Page, Hurley, Crane, Tambling. GOALS: North: Johnston 7, Langford 3, Stewart 2, Anderson, Campbell, Gordon, Ryswyk, Shannon. Sturt: Meulendyks 4, Hewett, Hill 2, O'Hara, Habel, Hardy, Williams. INJURIES/REPORTS: Sturt: Coad (ankle), Crane (eye). North: Nil. UMPIRES: M. Avon, J. Ralston, R. Hundertmark.