Scarborough Athletic 5 Nostell Miners Welfare 0

Scarborough Athletic remain top of the NCEL Premier Division with a comfortable win over Nostell Miners Welfare.

The Welfare failed to deal with Denny Ingram’s long throw-in from the right and when the ball landed at the feet of Ryan Blott just a couple of yards from goal, Athletic’s top scorer made no mistake.

A sweeping crossfield move saw the ball switched from right to left into the path of Paddy Miller who made the most of the space afforded to him, powering towards the corner of the Nostell area before smashing the ball across Denton and into the back of the visitors’ net.

Funk was forced to shuffle his pack with James Bennett entering the fray to replace Matty Plummer who limped off with a thigh problem, but the re-organisation didn’t seem to affect Athletic as they made it 3-0 half way through the first period.

Mitchell Pearson took far too long in attempting to clear Paddy Miller’s cross from the left and Jimmy Beadle nipped in to steal the ball and plant it past Denton for his sixth goal in his last six outings.

All this happened within the first half.

Athletic’s fourth arrived just seven minutes into the second half when Tony Hackworth’s clever diagonal pass released Hawkes who pulled the ball back across the face of goal for Bennett who could not miss from barely a yard out.

The hosts began to create more chances as the game became stretched and Hawkes fired narrowly over before Hackworth eventually notched the fifth of the afternoon in the 74th minute.

Athlectic have now scored an impressive 34 goals in their last seven home NCEL fixtures, a run of victories in which they have conceded just three times.