Adam Maltby celebrated his first game as the new Kenilworth Wardens Reserve manager with an emphatic 6-1 victory over Balsall and Berkswell.

Wardens started the game brightly and some good play between captain James Butcher and Dan Twigger saw Lew Barry in down the left, Barry drew the foul and Wardens were given the chance to take the lead from the spot.

Lee Jassi however saw his penalty smartly saved by the goalkeeper who recovered well to also block Twigger's follow up with his legs.

Just two minutes later more Wardens pressure was rewarded when an excellent ball in behind the defence saw Charlie Waters cut in from the right and fire one across the keeper from the right corner of the box.

On 10 minutes Wardens had a goal disallowed from a corner as the keeper was fouled whilst claiming the ball from a brave header.

Despite Kenilworth's early dominance Balsall grew into the game and began to create chances, hitting the post almost instantly after the disallowed goal.

Wardens defended as a back four very solidly throughout and, with Bloomer and Butcher just in front, restricted the visitors to half chances from outside the box all comfortably dealt with by Charlie Stranks between the sticks.

Another neat finish 10 minutes before half time from Charlie Waters put Wardens two ahead. And just a few minutes before the break a Dan Twigger effort was saved well by the keeper to his right but the follow up fell kindly for Jassi who was in the right place to tuck away for 3-0.

Wardens started the second half much like the first and deservedly got a fourth when Twigger slotted neatly past the Balsall keeper.

Balsall's response though was a good one and some nice football from the back into the midfield saw a pinpoint through ball latched onto by the striker who cleverly took it around Stranks and clipped over debutant Ryan Oldham who tried acrobatically to clear.

As the game reached the final 20 minutes the pitch starting to get quite soft and the game a little stretched.

A Jassi effort at goal was again parried well by the keeper who possibly thought it had gone wide enough but the onrushing Barry nipped in ahead of the right back to finish smartly from the angle low into the corner.

Just two minutes later good link up down the right from Bloomer, Butcher and Twigger set the lively Charlie Waters away. He fired smartly into the net beyond the diving keeper to complete his hat trick.

In the closing minutes young sub Harry Morris dragged a good effort from just inside the area across the face inches from the post.

Speaking after the game Maltby said: "I told the lads at the start it was one final blow out before Christmas it's been a few weeks so they should all be up for it and for them to work hard on and off the ball and leave it all out there.

"With myself coming in I wanted them just to relax, enjoy it and express themselves to show me what they can do. With the missed pen and the disallowed goal we could've been 3-0 up in 12 minutes - we were very good value for that.

"The front two linked up well, the wingers were lively, Butch and Bloomer in the centre worked extremely hard and the back four defended very well restricting them to mainly long range efforts.

"What pleased me the most is we used the ball well we kept it well when we needed to, we were clever which at 3-0 up at HT I said game management from here although it's 45 lets be clever with it, smart and they were."

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