Evo-Stik Southern Premier

Cirencester Town 2

St Neots Town 5

IF Cirencester Town thought that managerless St Neots had come to be sacrificial lambs on the back of five straight defeats they had their answer within four minutes when the visitors went ahead with their first attack.

And for the first hour it was the hosts who looked rudderless and in disarray against the pace and enthusiasm of the young Saints side who were 4-0 up inside an hour.

A second-half Cirencester rally saw Charlie Griffin net twice while the Centurions also hit the woodwork three times, but it was all too little too late and the Saints had the final word with their fifth goal in stoppage time.

It had been a cruel home debut for on loan Oxford United keeper Jack Stevens who was often left exposed and who could only be questioned over the second of the five goals.

It was an unmarked George Casey who neatly picked his spot past Stevens in the fourth minute and the sparky Peter Clark might have made it two in the 15th minute had he not been hauled back when he burst through the Ciren back four.

The Saints had to wait just six minutes to celebrate a second goal when Tom Meechan showed why he is the league’s top scorer and past 20 goals already.

Meechan anticipated a ball through and Stevens was perhaps a tad too impetuous in coming out of his goal, allowing Meechan to tap it around him and find the empty net just before the covering tackle came in.

While Ciren were creating little with their possession, the pace and movement of St Neots continued to cause trouble.

And in the 34th minute Josh Dawkins lashed home a fierce rising drive that Stevens’ fingers could not prevent from going into the top corner.

Even when Ciren did at last string a few passes together at the end of the first half, St Neots, and in particular captain Adam Tann and right back Jamie Anton, continued to be first to the ball.

Any thoughts of a meaningful Ciren comeback were punctured in the 56th minute when Lee Clarke placed a delightful left foot curler wide of Stevens.

Centre half Ben Brown, on his first start back after injury, had been as commanding as it is possible to be in a defence which was 4-0 down, but he was sacrificed for an attacker as Ross Langworthy was introduced around the hour mark.

With an extra body up front Cirencester began to ask some questions.

Griffin had a tap-in to make it 4-1 and Aidan Bennett, who had seen little of the ball restored to his favoured role in the front three, had a curling shot tipped over the bar by Ben Jackson, a loanee this week from the Stevenage FC Academy.

Zack Kotwica then saw his corner skim the top of the bar.

Youngsters Ollie Knight and Charlie Buse came on for Bennett and Kotwica in the 74th minute and with his first touch Knight almost scored when his goal-bound shot was deflected off the wrong side of the post and out for a corner.

In the 83rd minute a cross from the left found Griffin on the edge of the area and he expertly stroked the ball into the bottom corner first time to leave Ciren fans dreaming of an unlikely result.

But it was the Saints, on the break, who got the game’s final goal.

Last season’s top scorer Drew Roberts, returning after a long injury absence, brought a great full length save out of Stevens after breaking down the right channel, and Peter Clark showed the best anticipation to bury the rebound and make it five.

It was a day when everything turned to gold for the Saints but they were worthy and comfortable winners and when a new manager is appointed this week he will inherit a young side whose confidence is on the up.

Cirencester Town: Stevens, Anson, Pritchett, Brown (Langworthy, 59), Liddiard, Henry (capt), Reid, Mortimer-Jones, Griffin, Bennett (Buse, 74), Kotwica (Knight, 74).

Unused subs: Hooper, Connolly.