Penkridge FC kicked off the new season in some style as they started their first campaign in the Staffs County Senior League.
Their first opponents at their new pitch at Wolgarston High were a young side from Whittington who were determined to upset the odds. Penkridge started brightly keeping the ball well and in the 5th minute Lees and Miller combined, with the latter firing narrowly wide. Penkridge did get in front in the 8th minute when captain Alex Dodd found John Hodnett 6 yards out. With the goal at his mercy Hodnett made no mistake.
Instead of raising the tempo and killing the game off, Penk sat back and their normal crisp passing starting going awry. This gave the visitors hope and keeper Josh Griffin twice had to come to the rescue after slack defending from the home side.
Penk were still seeing a good number of chances coming and going and finally converted one in the 37th minute when Hodnett turned provider setting Jack Lees through in front of goal, Lees was not going to let an opportunity like that pass him by and he duly made it 2-0.
Half Time 2-0
Penk started the second half really slowly and the visitors pulled a goal back on 48 minutes when Jackson scored with a speculative long range effort.
The visitors now had the home side on the ropes and for ten minutes had virtually boxed Penkridge into their own half. However, it was not to be, substitute Stuart Ruthven played a great ball that split the visitors defence and Lees ran through and fired low past the keeper. Lees was far from finished and a minute later he had completed his hat-trick and put the game beyond doubt. A strong run from Andy Taylor broke through Whittington’s back four who saw his shot saved only for the ball to fall to Lees who again gave the keeper no chance from the rebound.
The two quick goals really settled the home side down and Lees added his 4th and Penk’s 5th on 76 minutes with a smartly struck penalty after Turton had been pulled in the box.
Substitute Frankie Wynn completed the scoring on 90 minutes when he rounded the keeper following another strong run from Taylor to make the final score 6-1.
Full Time 6-1
The side now have three home cup games in as many weeks and won’t return the league action until October.
