WALDON ATHLETIC 0

AXMINSTER TOWN 5

AXMINSTER Town cruised to a 5-0 win at Waldon Athletic in a one-sided performance with Tony Pinder grabbing two goals in the East Division of the Southwest Peninsula League.

Axminster travelled to South Devon having had to reshuffle the pack to deal with the unavailability of first team regulars Connor Hannaford, Nathan Antat and Jacob Rowe.

The Tigers were sent out with the instructions to do a professional job against one of the league’s newcomers.

Axminster were in unforgiving mood and found themselves one goal up timed at 19 seconds when Ben Allen played in Luke Finn whose first-time shot completely caught out the home keeper who was totally out of position, this allowed Finn’s 18-yard drive to drop into an empty net.

The Tigers doubled their lead 10 minutes later. Tony Pinder received the ball inside the 18-yard box before he danced past a couple of defenders and rifled home.

With Axminster in complete control they added a third goal on the 35th minute and it was Pinder at it again, notching his 28th goal of the season after heading past the Waldon gloveman from Kieran Daniels’ terrific cross.

On the 40th minute Pinder was denied his hat-trick after the home keeper pulled off a sensational save, diving at full length to push Pinder’s powerful header away to safety.

After the half-time oranges the home side gave it a good go and effectively went for broke throwing numbers forward to try and get back into the game.

On the 60th minute they pressed the self-destruct button when Ashley Small was alive to a backpass, intercepting and rounding the gloveman with ease netting Axminster’s fourth goal and his 22nd of an impressive campaign.

Pinder, Reece McCabe and Will Hellier went on to have half-chances as clearly by the 70th minute Waldon were well beaten and by now were just trying to keep the score down.

On the 80th minute Connor Swingler added salt to the wound by jinking past some heavy challenges before calmly slotting past the keeper.

Joint Manager Josh Stunell said: “Jonny (joint manager) and myself were delighted with the way the lads applied themselves as this is not an easy place to go to.

“If you are not mentally switched on you could quite easily come unstuck.

“Waldon’s management were very gracious in defeat and as a team they worked hard and never gave up and we wish them well for the future as they clearly have ambition to progress.”