Pinchbeck United 0
Rugby Town 6
A nightmare first half ensured that Pinchbeck United suffered a heavy defeat on the opening day of the new Uhlsport UCL Premier Division season.
The Knights were five down at the break after goals from Liam Francis (3 & 23), Dylan Parker (7) and Danico Johnson (35 & 38) at the Sir Halley Stewart Playing Field on Saturday, before Parker added number six 20 minutes from time.
Pinchbeck, who were once again under the caretaker charge of first team coach Alfie Tate and chairman Gary Coomes, were simply blown away by a ruthless Rugby side who are targeting the title this year.
Tate was philosophical about the performance and admitted that an improved second half showing didn’t really go anyway to making up for the humbling in the first 45.
“Rugby are obviously a well-established side and have got a good budget,” said the young caretaker. “We’re still in a bit of a transitional period.
“We had new players in for the game and had a few away, which made things difficult.
“They were pretty ruthless if I’m honest and punished us for basically not working hard enough. It was one of those days, unfortunately.
“To say I’m happy with the second half would be going too far. But it was better, we spoke to the lads at half time and told them that the attitude just wasn’t there.
“Things weren’t right in that regard in the first half and we got punished for that. We lost the ball and didn’t work hard enough to go and get it back.
“Nothing changed tactically in the second half, we just asked the lads to work harder.
“I know there were some other big results today, but that doesn’t change the fact we lost 6-0 or make it any easier for us.
“We just weren’t good enough, it was a bad day at the office. We’ll try to take the positives from this game and pre-season and hopefully we can play better and work harder moving forward.
“We had to sign a couple of players last minute just to make a squad of 14, so we’re still very much in transition and want to strengthen.”
Rugby raced out of the traps in the first half and went ahead inside three minutes when an unmarked Francis rose to head Johnson’s corner into the net.
The lead was doubled four minutes later, with striker Parker expertly turning his man in the box and firing a low effort from the right-hand side of the box low into the corner.
Pat Kacirek did have the ball in the net for the Knights at the other end, but his smart finished was ruled out for offside.
That was a brief respite, however, with the one-way traffic resuming when Francis exchanged passes with Parker and raced through the middle before calmly finishing past Ben Martin.
Johnson, who was a dominant presence in attack throughout the first period, then feasted on some hesitant home defending with a quickfire double.
First, he collected a pass from Evans and lashed a fierce cross-shot into the far corner for 4-0 on 35 minutes.
He then benefitted from a backheel by Kurtis Revan before blasting a brutal near-post finish into the roof of the net to make it 5-0 to the visitors at the break.
The Knights, to their credit, fared much better after the break. They had a decent chance to pull one back, only for Kyle Onyon to slice his effort wide of the near post.
Mario Neves also sent an acrobatic effort towards the target after a searching long ball forward, but Rugby keeper Sam Lomax saved routinely.
Sub Kye Daws also forced a point-blank save from Lomax as Pinchbeck did their utmost to bring some respectability back to the scoreline.
That was as good as it got for the hosts, though, with Rugby upping their game in the final 25 minutes.
A great hit from Charlie Evans whistled just past the post from range, before Parker doubled his money 20 minutes from time. A marauding run and cross from left back Lee Thomas put the opportunity on a plate for the frontman.
Parker was then denied his hat-trick when his side-footed effort was saved by Martin, while sub Lewis Padmore twice blazed over when well placed as the visitors were forced to settle for six.
For Pinchbeck, it’s clear that they need a permanent manager and a few fresh faces sorted sooner rather than later. But to judge the youthful Knights on one game against one of the league’s big hitters would be unfair.
Sleaford Town away on Wednesday night (7.45pm) will be a better indication.
Knights: Martin, Cottingham, Eyes, Worthington, Ramsden, Z Dunn (Shores 75), Abayomi, , Neves, Onyon (Daws 55), Krasiqi (Harrison 62), Kacirek.
