BALTI SPORTS 5 WAREHAM RANGERS 2

FREE-SCORING Balti Sports maintained their perfect home record in the Dorset Premier League this season with a seventh successive victory at Cranford Avenue.

Balti’s 5-2 defeat of Wareham Rangers saw Marco Nott’s men score four or more goals in a league game for the sixth time this term, while the win also kept them top of the table.

Their five strikes on Saturday took Balti’s total for the campaign in the league to 34, with 28 of those coming in their seven home matches.

Danny Andrews, Charlie May, Josh Burton, Sammy Nicholls and substitute Shane Lock were on target against struggling Wareham, though the visitors didn’t let the hosts have it all their own way.

“We started really slowly and they were the better team in the first 15 minutes,” said boss Nott.

“They played some good football and should have scored in that period, but we settled down after that and played at a good tempo.

“We scored a good goal after about 20 minutes when their keeper palmed a Charlie May shot to Danny Andrews and he put the ball into an empty net.

“Ashley Batchelor then went down the right and put in a cross that Charlie hit home from the penalty spot.

“We made it 3-0 in the second half through a Josh Burton penalty after Jason Pearce, who was man of the match, was brought down.

“For some reason we stopped playing after that and we let them back into it with a goal to make it 3-1.

“But within a minute Sammy Nicholls made it 4-1 after a good run into the box by Ethan Devaney.

“The same thing happened again though, we dropped off and they scored a second with a deflected shot which looped over Andy Nott.

“Then straight away, Shane Lock, who had come on for Danny, fired home from 20 yards for 5-2.”

Nott praised Wareham for fighting back on two occasions in the second half, but he was pleased with another good afternoon’s work from his players.

“They certainly gave us a few scares but we managed to hit back immediately after both of their goals,” he added.

“I thought Ricky Lane would be a big miss but Danny Andrews put in a really good performance up front, as did Shane Lock when he came on.”

Balti: A Nott, Batchelor, Anderson, Burton, Pearce, Devaney (Proffitt), Litherland, May, Ironside (Kenderdine), Nicholls, Andrews (Lock)