Ottery St Mary maintained their excellent start to the Peninsula League season with a sensational attacking display to thrash Bovey Tracey 7-0 at Devon FA headquarters in Newton Abbot.
The result was even more impressive, given that Ottery had suffered a frustrating 1-0 home defeat to Torridgeside in their previous game and Bovey started the evening with just one loss to their name so far.
The fun started on 11 minutes, when a Liam Carey free-kick was parried into the path of Ash Small and he clipped a cross for Pete Grover to head past the Bovey custodian.
The first-half remained tight until the Otters grabbed a crucial second on the stroke of half-time. A corner from Danny Pym was flicked on by Small and Ben Lawrence volleyed home a terrific finish.
It was 3-0 within moments of the restart, when another corner from Pym was tucked away by the alert Lawrence. Carey made it four with arguably the goal of the game, a sumptuous free-kick curled into the top corner from a difficult angle.
Ottery turned on the style in the final ten minutes, starting with a sweeping move finished off by Jamie Fanson. Luke Nickles made is 6-0 in injury-time and there was still enough left on the clock for Fanson to rifle home a low drive from the edge of the area.
While the short-term future is looking bright for Ottery, the long-term plan is also working very nicely, evidenced by 16 year-old making the step up from Under-18 football to shine from the subs bench.
The fabulous finishing on display was in stark contrast to the Torridgeside game, where the Ottery forwards endured a rare off day in front of goal.
Carey, Fanson and Nickles all had decent chances before Torridgeside broke on the counter and scored the only goal of the game with a close-range header.
Ottery pressure was incessant in the second half and Fanson did have the ball in the net, but was denied by an offside flag.
Ottery host mid-table Crediton this weekend and then start their League Cup campaign at home to Axminster Town on Wednesday.
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