Sam Reed & Harry Green hit doubles as Scarborough Athletic hammer Needham Market 5-0
Boss Jono Greening shuffled his pack, making four changes from the loss at Kidderminsternote-0, and Boro responded with an impressive 5-0 demolition of Needham Market on Tuesday night.
Harry Green and Sam Reed scored twice, and Steve Walker notched his first goal for the club, while Luca Colville contributed three assists, in a superb all-round team display as they equalled their biggest league win of the season, writes Steve Adamson.
Needham won a corner straight from the kick-off, the only corner of the match, but Boro soon took control, Reed, operating on the right of midfield, surged down the flank and passed to Colville, who turned and fired over, then Reed laid off to Green, whose shot was blocked by Josh Tomlinson.
Alex Brown, making his first start for six games, raced down the left, and passed inside to Colville, but impressive Needham skipper Kieran Morphew blocked his shot.
Needham had a great chance on 16 minutes when a long ball forward from Jake Watkiss was chested down by Kyle Hammond, who was through on goal, but Boro keeper Ryan Whitley did well to block his attempted chip.
Within 60 seconds Boro were ahead, Colville passed to Green in the area, and he jinked round his marker and fired past keeper Marcus Garnham from close range.
Colville then dribbled down the right, but Morphew headed his cross towards Green clear, but Boro doubled their lead when Alex Wiles battled for possession and laid off to Colville, whose low cross to the back post was slammed home by Reed.
Needham had a couple of attacks, Teddy Collis firing into the chest of Whitley, and Mackenzie Maltby tackled Collis as he ran into the area.
Boro went 3-0 up when Colville threaded the ball through to Green, whose nimble footwork saw him dance past three defenders before slotting into the bottom right corner, then a Colville cross was fired over by Kieran Weledji.
Boro added a fourth goal five minutes into the second half, but had a huge slice of luck.
Michael Duckworth, in his first start for 13 games, passed to Richie Bennett, who sent a through-ball to Reed. Keeper Garnham raced out to kick clear, but the ball struck the chest of Reed and rebounded into the net.
A Colville free-kick flashed across the area towards Weledji, who fired against the right-hand post, and Colville had a shot blocked by Morphew.
Needham then enjoyed their best spell of the game, Weledji tackled Reggie Lambe as he burst forward, Teddy Collis drilled a shot wide, Will Thornton kicked clear when Jamie McGrath raced into the box, and Jacob Lay fired into the chest of Whitley.
Rampant Boro ended the game well on top, playing some lovely one-touch passing football. Dom Tear dinked a pass to Frank Mulhern, but Garnham got down to save his shot, and a 35-yard free-kick from Mulhern deflected off the wall towards the bottom right corner, but Garnham dived to save,.
The fifth goal arrived four minutes from time, when Maltby passed to Weledji to the right of the area, and his ball across the goalmouth was slammed into the roof of the net by Walker at the back post, to round off a brilliant team performance.
BORO - Whitley, Duckworth (Tear 62), Brown (Thornton 71), Maltby, Weledji, Purver (c), Reed, Wiles, Bennett (Mulhern 62), Green (Walker 62), Colville (Marshall 71)
NEEDHAM - Garnham, Smith, Hammond, Ingram, Morphew (c), Chambers (McGrath 46), T.Allen (Dye 46), Tomlinson (I.Allen 70, Lambe, Watkiss (Lay 46), Collis, unused sub - Blunkell
REFEREE - Liam Smith
GOALS - Harry Green 17, 35, Sam Reed 23, 50, Steve Walker 86
GOAL ATTEMPTS - BORO 14 (8 on target) NEEDHAM 5 (3 on target)
CORNERS - BORO 0 NEEDHAM 1
OFFSIDES - BORO 2 NEEDHAM 3
YELLOW CARDS - Kyle Hammond, Josh Tomlinson (Needham)
BORO MAN OF MATCH - Sam Reed
ATTENDANCE - 1,045 (24 away)