It faces Demon Knights 2 in today’s Cup first round at Federation Park in Tamworth.

“We’re looking forward to the Cup,” coach Wayne May said.

“It’s our first year in it and our blokes have been training for seven weeks now.

“We’ve had a couple of games here and there amongst ourselves and against a rep team and we’re looking forward to it.

“We’ve got a few new guys we’re going to test.”

TFC has lost Josh Perizzolo but those new players will help plug that gap.

Jarryd May will take on more responsibility and the rest of the team is more experienced at this level after last year’s efforts.

“We’ve lost Josh and he was out top goal scorer last year,”

“But we’ve picked up a few blokes and I think we’ll cover for him.

“Jarryd will move up front and he wasn’t far behind Josh on the goal scoring.”

May said TFC will use the NIF Cup as a lead-in to the new Solo State Cup, which starts in two weeks, even if it loses today and has to drop back to the Plate series.

“We get a minimum of two games where we can work on a few things,” he said.

“The State Cup is a bigger thing and we’ll be using these two games more as trials.

“But obviously we want to win it. “It’s a bit disappointing that there’s only eight teams.

“It’s a shame North Companions and North Armidale didn’t support it, but that’s their choice.

TFC will face Coffs Harbour team North Star FC at Port Macquarie on March 26.

Between the two knockout competitions the club should be in good shape heading into the Premier League.

“It’ll be a good build-up for us,” May said.

“I don’t think depth will be a problem for us this year.

“We’re looking pretty good with a few new guys coming to town.

“The team will be mostly the same as last year but with three or four positional changes.

“We’re hoping to improve on last year and that means making the finals.”