Bourne Town A have made a winning start to the new Peterborough League season
Bourne Town's A team continued their emphatic start to the Peterborough League season by notching a fourth win from their first four Division Three games on Saturday.
The Wakes were 4-0 home winners over Uppingham Town Reserves at Elsea Park and find themselves in second spot in the early standings.
After conceding first at home on both occasions this season, Bourne were keen to start fast and take the game to the visitors.
After starting composed and taking time to build the attacks and probe the Uppingham defence, the breakthrough came just eight minutes in.
A lovely team move that started with composed play as ever from Bills in the middle allowed Scott Hardwick and Michael Hasler to combine on the left hand side.
An overlap from the former allowed Hardwick to get to the byline and pick out Jack Durno's head who repaid his first league start with his first goal of the season.
Bourne nullified any threats from Uppingham with great marshalling of the back line from Tom Ward and Liam Gibson, with Ben Asplin behind them coming to claim and sweep anything that got through.
Full-backs Jake Dilley and Hardwick continued to be a threat going forward and the control given by Bills and Alfie Woodward in the centre of the park maintained the fast start.
After half-an-hour, the ever present Matthew Dodson was victim to a nasty swipe that forced him off prematurely, Callum Beveridge was his replacement and keen to make an impact.
The second goal was coming and, after fine stops from a Woodward free kick, a lovely Nathan Bills curved effort, and a vintage Beveridge drive through, it finally came.
Good work from Dilley and Nathan Bills released Beveridge who drove to the byline and picked out Hasler to thump it into the net.
The message to the Bourne players at half-time from the management was to keep the game short and not get sucked into the direct game Uppingham were wanting to play.
Despite a slow start in the second half from the Wakes, Bourne did get their third goal when a speculative effort from Liam Gibson on the edge of the box made its way through bodies and into the back of the net.
Bourne started to wake up and again Nathan Bills forced the keeper into a fine stop onto the bar.
Darren Halliday slotted into the defence well and continued to prevent Uppingham from having anything clear cut.
The fresh legs of Sam Webster and Ryan Baxter caused problems for the Uppingham defence who were tiring as the afternoon wore on.
Good play along the back line eventually released Webster down the right and a great charging run and pass to Baxter allowed a first time cross that picked out Beveridge who cut past his man and nearly took the net with it as he scored his team's fourth goal.
It was great to see Ethan Hunt back on the pitch after a spell on the injury list and his pace and power at the back ensured that a very professional performance was seen off as Bourne kept their second clean sheet of the season after a great dive at the feet from Asplin.
Bourne march on to Ramsey this weekend, looking to make it six from six in all competitions.