Clinical Steelmen hit eight against the bottom markers

It was an instant return to winning ways for the Steelmen after they had suffered a shock 2-1 home defeat to Kempston Rovers last weekend.

And they made no mistake on the road as they inflicted a 13th defeat in a row on the hosts to maintain second place in the BetVictor Southern League Division One Central.

Assistant-manager Elliot Sandy opened the scoring inside the first three minutes and then doubled the advantage with a volley before the Steelmen went on to score twice more before the break with Callum Westwood hitting first goal of the season before captain Jake Duffy made it 4-0.

They kept going after the break and James Ireland grabbed the fifth before new signing Robbie Parsons marked his debut by scoring number six.

Sandy completed his hat-trick with 10 minutes to go and it was John Dean who rounded things off with the eighth goal of the day.

And joint-boss Robinson was full of praise for his players with the Steelmen now looking forward to a top-of-the-table showdown with unbeaten leaders Berkhamsted at Steel Park next weekend.

“I am incredibly happy, like I said we don’t take any team lightly in this league and I wanted the lads to start with tempo and they did that,” Robinson said.

“Everyone carried out their jobs and we took our chances. Last week, I didn’t think we were clinical enough and then we come away from home and score eight.

“We didn’t want to take our foot off the pedal. I said to them at half-time to just keep doing what they were doing and playing the right way.

“There are still some things to work on. It’s an important game next week so we will be back in on Tuesday and Thursday and take it from there.

“Berkhamsted are a good side and still unbeaten so it will be a tough game.

“But I have said before that I believe in this squad and I think we will give anyone in this league a good game as long as we are on it.

“It will be a fantastic occasion. We are looking forward to it but we will take it one step at a time.”

The Steelmen included new goalkeeper Alistair Worby in their starting line-up while fellow new boy Parsons was introduced as a second-half substitute.

And Robinson added: “We have freshened things up slightly.

“We brought Alistair and Robbie in and both we know are very good players and both will do a job for the club.

“Alistair has started with a clean sheet and it’s great for Robbie to get a goal. That will do him the world of good.”