St Neots Town set their stuttering season back on track by easing past the Southern League Premier Division basement boys yesterday.

Saints, who had fallen to their lowest league position for 18 months and bowed out of the FA Cup to lower-level opponents in the past week, triumphed 5-2 at Paulton Rovers.

Ryan Hawkins earned the penalty from which leading scorer Tom Meechan fired Saints ahead in the 20th minute.

Hawkins then doubled the advantage himself just after the half-hour before Meechan restored their two-goal cushion seconds after the hosts had hit back in the 58th minute.

Hawkins followed the lead of his team-mate when hitting his second goal to seal the points with 17 minutes to go.

There was still time for Paulton to strike from the penalty spot before Josh Beech completed the scoring when heading in his first Town goal.

They climbed three places to 14th in the standings and boast games in hand on all their Premier Division rivals.

A hat-trick from Kelvin Osei-Addo was not enough to launch St Neots Saints off the bottom of the United Counties League Division One table.

They went down 5-3 to Thrapston despite Osei-Addo twice hauling his side level at opposite ends of the first half.

He struck after six minutes to cancel out the visitors’ opener and then completed his treble with two goals in the space of three minutes just before the break to restore parity at 3-3.

But Saints were stung by two goals in the final six minutes as their wait for a first league win of the season continued.

Eynesbury Rovers snapped a run of four successive United Counties League Premier Division defeats when holding a highly-rated Holbeach side to a goalless draw at Hall Road.

Huntingdon were unable to build on the midweek success of a first victory since January as they went down 3-0 at fellow strugglers Harrowby in the same division.

Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division top-scorer James Hall added two more goals to his collection as Godmanchester Rovers climbed into second spot.

Hall bagged an early brace - which included a high-class free-kick - as Rovers triumphed 3-2 at Hadleigh. Tom Spark hit their other goal early in the second half.