Evesham completed a busy pre-season with a crushing 4-1 victory against Evo-Stik Southern Premier Division side Dorchester Town at The Avenue on Friday night.
It was another impressive display over their higher-graded opponents and confidence will be high going into Saturday`s curtain raiser at Larkhall Athletic. However, a physical Dorchester side were lucky to finish the game with a full compliment of players after two shocking challenges by Tom Blair and Ross Carmichael on the speedy Paul Fahy that would have resulted in automatic red cards had it been a competitive fixture.
United started with a bang by scoring twice in the opening ten minutes. Bradley Gray followed up his two goals against Stourport Swifts last week by firing the Robins ahead in the 4th minute with a shot on the turn to tick away Fahy`s right wing cross. Then the impressive Adam Mann got on the end of Matt Williams` delivery to cleverly divert the ball past former Leicester City and Derby County goalkeeper Chris Weale for 2-0. The home side did pull a goal back approaching half-time with David Jerrard bursting into the box from a short corner and firing beyond Kevin Sawyer into the far corner.
But two minutes after the re-start Mann was on the scoresheet again controlling Lorcan Sheehan`s quickly taken free-kick and lobbing in over the helpless Weale. Despite using a host of substitutes, United continued to dominate with Weale saving well from Mann and Mark Magee and then Carl Brown and James Campbell both shooting wide from distance. Campbell went on to complete the scoring with five minutes to go, beating the diving Weale from 15 yards with a thunderous drive that crashed in off the crossbar.
United boss Paul Collicutt said afterwards, “We can again take positives from the game and to score four times in successive games was pleasing. Despite the long journey it was a decent performance and relieved to come away without any serious injuries. The friendlies are now done and dusted and we concentrate our thoughts on a tough opening game at Larkhall.”
UNITED:
Sawyer (Gilder 45), M.Williams, Bennett, Haskayne (Sheehan 45), Odiero,
Liddiard (A.Williams 67), Fahy (Brain 64), Gray (Magee 67), Peel (Campbell 60),
Mann (Brown 60), Stanley (Binns 45).
Referee: Mr M.Derrien (Dorset)
