Crawley Town returned jubilant from their opening friendly of their pre-season campaign when they beat local rivals Oakwood 8-1 at Tinsley Lane last night.
Both sides enjoyed the run-out in warm conditions and in front of a decent 300-400 crowd.
Reds gave no quarter to their County League hosts, who also are providing them with use of their ground as a training base this season.
Crawley built a 4-1 lead by half-time with goals by Gary Alexander, youth team player Jordan Adekunle, Andy Drury and Mark Connolly.
Mark Gilbert’s Oakwood produded some useful moves themselves and pulled a goal back through a dave Brown header moments before half-time.
It was all-change in the second half with Reds putting out an entirely different team after the break.
But they did not waste time in adding to the scoreline with a fifth goal scored on 58 minutes by Jonte Smith with a brilliant individual effort.
Jame Proctor weaved through the middle for 6-1 while not put off by the scoreline at the other end, Oakwood hit the crossbar.
New signing James Hurst added a seventh goal from a narrow angle following a run down the right flank before second half captain Dannie Bulman netted a skillful eighth goal with a chip into the top left hand corner.
Reds manager Richie Barker said: “The attitude of the players really pleased me tonight. They were magnificent, getting eight goals was pleasing but at this stage it’s all about performance, and they delivered that tonight. All of the players got 45 minutes, we’ll keep building them up throughout pre-season. We’ve come through unscathed without injury, which is important.
“It’s nice for the strikers to get a few under their belt in pre-season. I thought all four who played tonight were brilliant.
“Full credit to Oakwood, they made it tough for us. It’s important to get something out of a game and tonight I feel they made us work hard.”
Reds: (First half): P.Jones, Stinson, Sadler, Connolly, McFadzean, Clarke, Alexander, Adekunle, Drury, Simpson, M.Jones
(Second half): Maddison, Malins, Walsh, Essam, Hurst, Bulman, Torres, Adams, Levy, Smith, Proctor.
Oakwood: (First half): Hyde, Shuga’a, Agate, Bates, Law, Rivers, Manville, Brown, Hicks, Akinbiyi, Sultan
(Second half): Goodwin, Norse, Bidgood, Cox, Farr, Jee-Thomas, Jenner, S.Smith, Benton, Adsett