DREAM START AS BRICKIES RATTLE IN SIX!

IF you could have scripted New Milton Town’s first game of the season you probably would not have dared to write it as a 6-1 win against a very capable Cove side - but that’s just what the Brickies achieved on a memorable first day of the season at the GD Print Stadium. After dominating the early exchanges without scoring, there were signs of frustration creeping in before Noel McCarthy-Gardiner’s opportunist cut-in and strike from the right edge of the penalty area. Just before half-time it was 2-0 - and Cove were reduced to ten men. There was goalmouth chaos following a corner and Cove defender Don Roche kept the ball out of the net with his arm. Brickies’ penalty, red card for Roche - and Joe Roberts took the perfect spot kick, keeper one way, ball the other. Everything was set - although things took a slightly anxious turn when Cove’s ten scored two minutes into the second half for 2-1. It was never a problem though, and three goals in four minutes, from Roberts again, Callum Clarke, and then Clarke again, put everything beyond doubt. Elliott Pearce-Eavis’s strike ten minutes from the end rounded off a fantastic afternoon. Next up for the Brickies, an “overseas” trip to play Cowes Sports in the Hampshire Senior Cup on Tuesday. Picture by club photographer LES CHASE.