NEW College assistant boss Matt Cosnett was pleased to see the hard work of the players on the training ground bear fruit in front of goal as they beat Purton 5-3 in the Hellenic League Challenge Cup.

The students were 4-1 up at half-time against their local rivals and had to survive a wobble in the second period, but ultimately were able to compose themselves and find another goal to see out the game.

Alex Fenton gave New College the lead less than five minutes in, then Ollie Hunt doubled the score against the side his dad Paul is assistant manager.

An own goal and a Jordy Wilkinson strike from a swift counter attacking move, originating from a Purton corner, meant Cosnett’s side went into half-time in a strong position, with Justin Miller’s side only managing one in reply.

The Red House team’s goals from Ben Carter, Joe Hiscock and Tatenda Majoni meant the students were never home and dry, but Ashton Gleed’s late strike did settle some nerves late on.

New College had been working on their attacking movement and finishing in training as they look to up their goal output and Cosnett was pleased to see it pay off.

“We don’t score that many goals, it’s the first time we have scored three in the first half for quite a while,” he said.

“It was good to see the attacking play come off as we have done a lot of it in training. They do the finishing sessions really well but never seem to bring it into the matches, for some reason it paid off.

“In the first half we were really sharp and bright. We got 4-1 up and then second half we managed the game as we went.”

Leading by such a wide margin at the break is not something New College are used to so after the break Cosnett instructed them to take a different approach, which took a little bit of adapting to.

“It’s trying to get into their mindset of managing minutes,” he added.

“A lot of them are young and want to just score goals, whereas when you’re in that lead you need to sit on it a little bit and weather the storm.

“We tried to make sure they didn’t get back into it, which they did a bit.

“They let two goals in, poor goals, which they shouldn’t have. They were better after they got the fifth one, they were a lot more settled.”