Four goals in the space of 16 second half minutes from Calum Fraser helped Newark Town destroy Dinnington Town as they emerged with a comprehensive 8-0 victory.
The match was delicately poised at 1-0 before the striker took the game away from Town’s South Yorkshire opponents.
There was little to choose between the sides in the opening quarter of an hour, with a blocked Arron Martin effort the closest either team could come to breaking the deadlock early on.
Martin continued his excellent start to the season as he opened the scoring in the 25th minute, his 20-yard effort taking a slight deflection before nestling into the bottom left-hand corner.
Newark continued to press after the goal, and they should have gone into half time a couple of goals ahead, but Ricky Brewer directed a powerful header over, before Fraser struck the post with the goal at his mercy.
While the first half was well contested, the second proved to be completely one-sided, and Fraser set the tone in the opening minute of the half when he headed in from an excellent Luke Hutchinson cross to double the advantage.
The goal seemed to knock the stuffing out of their opponents, and Fraser added another in the 49th minute after more excellent play from Martin. He jinked past defenders in the area and crossed to Fraser who stabbed the ball home with ease.
A Fraser hat trick hadn’t looked likely in the first half, but the striker completed the feat in an impressive 13 minutes, as he completely flummoxed the keeper with an audacious lob that bounced high into the net.
Dinnington were completely demoralised by this stage, and Fraser add his fourth in the 62nd minute when he was given the time to find space in the area before drilling powerfully into the corner.
With the job done, manager Tony Joynes swapped things around, with Fraser, Martin and Ian Hillier, all of whom had an excellent match, substituted for youngsters Stefan Bilyk, Daryl Price and Max King.
King helped set up Newark’s sixth goal of the afternoon as his excellent corner-kick was met by Luke Parsons, who used his height and physical presence to easily nod home past the keeper.
Dinnington enjoyed their best spell of the game late in the game, and Craig Rhodes was called into action to produce a good save from Josh Shepherd, and did well to keep his focus having barely touched the ball in the game.
Price maintained his reputation as an clinical goalscorer with two confident finishes to put a seal on the victory.
His first came from an exquisite volley which he lifted delicately over the keeper after he latched onto a loose header from Kyle Bowskill.
The second came just a minute from time as Price picked up the ball on the edge of the penalty area before comfortably sliding his shot into the corner.
Tony Joynes was satisfied with the result, which helped maintain their position near the top of the table. He said: “It was an interesting game today. It was important we had a good game today and to their credit the lads performed.
“There was a bit of frustration with the chances we missed before half time, but I knew if we got one early in the second half then the goals would come, and it really helped boost our goal difference.”