Evo-Stik Southern League Premier

Paulton Rovers 1 Cirencester Town 4

CIRENCESTER TOWN produced their best display of the season to beat Paulton Rovers in a feisty encounter at Winterfield Road with goals from Ben Brown, Ellis Dunton, Brad Hooper and Zack Kotwica.

Brown, who missed Saturday’s draw with Hitchin due to a slight hamstring problem, returned at centre back in place of the injured Gethin Jones (dead leg), with Ian Herring playing his first game of the season after a three-match suspension at right back.

Brown was on the scoresheet as early as the third minute when finding the net with a downward header at the back post from a Kotwica corner; it was Brown’s first goal for the club.

Fellow defender Ellis Dunton was next to convert a Kotwica set piece, this time with a near-post header from a free kick in the 24th minute.

A sparkling Cirencester could have more goals in the first half including from a Charlie Griffin chip which came back off the bar.

Three minutes before the interval Paulton pulled a goal back with a Mitchell Page header at the near post, but Cirencester soon re-established their dominance in the second half.

In the 52nd minute midfielder Brad Hooper scored with a superb low strike from 25 yards following some clever approach play by Kotwica and Josh Parsons.

Having had a hand in the previous three Cirencester goals Cheltenham Town loanee Kotwica bagged a goal himself in added time with a calm finish after an interception on halfway by Herring and some quick one-touch football.

The victory takes unbeaten Cirencester Town to second in the table with ten points from a possible 12.

Derby rivals Chippenham Town top the league as the only team to have won all four games.

League newcomers King’s Lynn Town are Cirencester’s next opponents at the Corinium Stadium on Saturday (kick-off 3pm) when centre half Mark Pritchett will return to the squad for the first time this season after his four-match ban.

Cirencester Town: Garner, Herring, Brown, Henry (capt), Dunton, Hooper, Mortimer-Jones, Parsons, Bennett (Langworthy, 54), Griffin, Kotwica.