IT was a five-star performance from Purton as they started their new campaign off on the right foot.

Justin Miller’s side put North Leigh United to the sword as Ben Carter scored a brace to add to strikes from Marcus Hall and debutants Dave Coleman and Jamie Sheppard.

It was not just the manner of the goals that pleased Miller though - the shut-out at the other end was equally as important for the Red House boss.

“It was an excellent start for us,” he said.

“To score five and not to concede as well; we couldn’t have really asked for a better game.

“They started pretty well and at 0-0, our goalie made a pretty good save.

“Then it was pretty even and then we started to take control of the game for 15 minutes and got the goal through Ben Carter.

“It was a good finish into the bottom corner.

“A couple of minutes later, we got the second; a great ball through from Steve May and Marcus Hall drilled it into the top corner from just inside the box.

“We had quite a few chances and went into the break at 2-0 but were quite disappointed that we didn’t take those chances.

“We managed to get the third in the second half and then sort of ran away with it from there.

“They had a couple of players out, who were playing for their first team, so it was a good time to play them.”

Miller had focused on bringing in forwards with the addition of Coleman and Josh Fowler in the close-season, and was pleased to see that recruitment drive pay dividends on the first day.

“We said all along that we needed to score more goals, and we will score goals. We just need to make sure we score more than the opposition.

“It is just pleasing that we got the five goals and managed to keep a clean sheet as well.

“Last year, we had some quite high-scoring games.

“We know we are going to score goals, but we need to make sure we are concentrating and keeping other teams' goals to a minimum.”