MALVERN Town began their West Midlands Regional League campaign with a bang as they cruised to a 5-0 victory over Cradley Town on Saturday.
Bryan Craven struck twice while there were also goals from fellow debutants Jake Hollylee and Sam Rathbone as Town swept aside their opponents.
Malvern were without the likes of Dave Reynolds and Louis Loader due to injury and Reece King who was suspended for the opening game.
But the club showed their strength in depth this season as five new faces took to the field, including Craven who broke the deadlock on the 35th minute.
Until then, Cradley were in the match and looked threatening as Daniel Edwards fired wide after a superb run before Niall Hacking was forced to tip a cross-cum-shot onto the post.
As the half wore on, though, Malvern started to pile on the pressure and eventually took the lead when Craven beat the offside trap before slotting the ball past the onrushing Dominic Hill.
This appeared to knock the stuffing out of Cradley who went on to leak two further goals before the interval. Both involved Hollylee as he doubled his side’s advantage with a well-struck volley before his next shot hit the back of the net after taking a big deflection off Ian Millward.
Cradley struggled to find a way back into the match as Malvern refused take their foot off the gas in the second half and began to knock the ball around with ease.
They should have notched up a fourth on the 68th minute after Hollylee was brought down in the area, but Lee Hooper failed to hit the target from the penalty spot.
However, Malvern quickly bounced back and sealed the victory with two goals in final ten minutes. Rathbone set up Craven for his second before the former completed the rout when he rounded the keeper and rolled the ball into the empty net.