Spalding United beat a youthful Macclestield Town team in a pre-season friendly

Spalding United ended their home pre-season programme in similar fashion to how they wrapped up the league title last season with an emphatic eight-goal victory.

The Tulips were crowned Northern Premier League Midlands Division champions after a comprehensive victory over Coleshill Town on the last day of the season.

They then concluded their home friendlies on Tuesday night by repeating the scoreline against a youthful Macclesfield side.

The Silkmen brought a young side for the friendly clash with their first team opting to play a friendly at nearby Northern Premier League Division One West side Wythenshawe Town on the same evening.

It resulted in a dominant display by the Tulips who netted three times in the opening half before scoring five more after the break.

Manager Elliot Sandy said: "We've had a tough pre-season, including playing against a couple of Football League clubs, and the onus in this game was on us to go and attack.

"It was a chance to show the patterns of play which we had been working on and we had an awful lot of possession in the first half.

"We probably weren't as penetrative as I would have liked by breaking through the lines but we still scored some good goals.

"I asked the lads to up by 20 per cent for the second half because it was a bit of an attack against defence sort of game.

"Macclesfield had some really good young lads but I felt we were clinical in the second half and there were a lot of good performances and there were so many positives to take from it."

Kieron Dawes had given Spalding the lead when he turned the ball home from the edge of the area after it had been laid back into his path when the Macclesfield goalkeeper had failed to gather a James Clifton corner.

An excellent turn and shot from Clifton doubled the lead when he rifled the ball into the bottom corner of the visiting net.

Kyle Barker added the third before the break when he curled home his finish following some neat build-up play.

A clinical finish from Jordan Graham from Callum Chettle's slide-rule pass made it four after the break before Nathan Stainfield teed up his central defensive partner Sam Cartwright from a corner to head home the fifth goal.

Sam Bennett reacted first to volley home a rebound after his initial free-kick had been blocked by the Macclesfield wall for Spalding's sixth goal of the night.

Tyler Winters netted for the second successive game to make it 7-0 before Bennett bagged his brace with a diving header from a Dawes cross to complete the scoring.

Spalding play their final pre-season friendly on Saturday when they travel to Northern Premier League Midlands Division side Quorn.

Their new Southern League Premier Division campaign kick-offs on Saturday, August 10, with a home match against Bedford Town.