Alton 8, Weymouth 0

ALTON made it three wins in a row on Saturday with a huge 8-0 win over Weymouth.

The home side knew the visitors had had a tough time so far this season but weren’t going to take any chances, and right from the off Alton were the dominant force, with early attacks giving Weymouth plenty to worry about.

And it wasn’t long before Alton scored their first goal, with skipper Nigel Downing feeding a pass through to Sam Steel who slipped the ball into the net to put Alton ahead.

Weymouth responded with a good spell of possession but couldn’t seem to do enough to trouble the home side’s defence.

As a result, Alton continued to dominate and soon doubled their lead with Richard Spicer winning the ball back after being tackled and scoring from the top of the circle.

Alton’s third came from skipper Downing, and not long before the half-time break Steel picked up his second goal of the game, and the home side’s fourth, after a long pass from Scott Reading in the Alton defence set the young striker free into the circle, finishing neatly and leaving Alton with a commanding lead.

Despite leading 4-0 at the break, Alton were determined not to let complacency creep in, and to their credit Weymouth didn’t back down and continued to try to force their way back into the game. They had another good spell of possession but were unable to breach the Alton defence.

And Alton made them play with Steel at the heart of their play. The young striker rounded off a strong 10-minute spell by the hosts by rounding the Weymouth goalkeeper to complete his hat-trick and scoring his fourth with a reverse-stick effort to put rampant Alton 6-0 ahead.

This left Weymouth truly rattled and cracks started to form as the visitors retreated into their own half.

But Alton pressed on and their seventh goal came from Pete Harvey, who capitalised when Weymouth failed to clear the ball from their circle, while Sam Juncker finished off a quick counterattack by rounding the goalkeeper and putting a pass across the circle to Steel, who tapped in his fifth of the game to seal an emphatic win.

Alton sit fifth in Hampshire 2 after three good performances but next week face a tough game away at fourth-placed Haslemere seconds.