FOUR goals up in 21 minutes Huntingdon Town tore Wisbech Town apart before the sleepy Fenlanders had really woken up this afternoon to go third in the United Counties League Premier Division.

Two goals from Ben Seymour-Shove and one each from Declan Rogers and Ollie Medwynter were enough at the Fenland Stadium against a team who, in many people’s eyes, started the game as favourites in this Cambridgeshire derby.

Wisbech moved from the Premier Division of the Eastern Counties League to the UCL for this season and had won both of their games but were rabbits in the headlights of a scintillating Huntingdon display which had their manager Ricky Marheineke purring after the goalless second half.

He said: “I’ll be honest; I thought it would be a more difficult game but I do genuinely believe that we have the guys in our dressing room that are as good as any team in our league.

“It’s just whether we can perform consistently over the season not only in the big games but also in the games where we are playing against lesser opposition. If we can do that we will have a good season.”

Seymour-Shove had already given Wisbech a warning when he stole the ball from a defender in the box and tried his luck from a tight angle in the sixth minute. The goalkeeper Tim Roberts stopped the shot that time, but he got nowhere near the hard-working Huntingdon No9’s next strike when he turned in the box with his first touch from a waist height Declan Rogers cross and found the back of the net with a sweet strike from 16 yards out on eight minutes.

Just over a minute later Wisbech’s defence were half asleep and claiming offside when Seymour-Shove shot across the box, Roberts parried the ball, but Ollie Medwynter pounced to make it 2-0 from three yards.

It was 3-0 when Stuart Eason was kicked in the head in the box and Rogers confidently slammed the ball home from the spot. And on 21 minutes a Rogers corner found its way through the crowded Wisbech box to Seymour-Shove at the back post for the striker to hit home from close range.

It was almost disappointing that there were no further goals in the first half, let alone the second.

At half time, when Marheineke spoke to the players, he told them to carry on doing exactly what they had been doing.

“The first three games we haven’t played well in the first half so we were very much focused on the fact that if we started as poorly as we had in those three games, come half time we wouldn’t have the opportunity to win it,” said the manager. “It would be game over.

“We spoke about pressing them high. We felt that they would try and play from the back. And, to be fair, in the first five minutes, we got the momentum and there was a great goal from Ben Seymour-Shove and we were causing them all sorts of problems and they were all over the shop.

“At that stage, when a team’s having a bad spell you have to capitalise and we got the goals at the right time and we managed to win the game comfortably in the end.”

Wisbech were better in the second half, but only tested Tim Trebes in the Huntingdon goal twice; once with a cross that strayed too close to the crossbar and then with a shot near the end. However, they were unlucky not to be awarded a penalty when Stuart Eason clearly handled the ball in the box late on.

Huntingdon will face Wisbech, this time at Jubilee Park, in two weeks time. Before then they have games against UCL favourites (and early leaders) AFC Rushden & Diamonds and Swaffham Town (in the extra preliminary round of the FA Cup).

“I think Rushden, Spalding, Deeping – and even Wisbech, to be fair – are all good sides. It’s just unfortunate that Wisbech came up against a side today that were better than them.

“Rushden will be exceptionally difficult; they play slightly differently to what Wisbech do, they have a big lad up front who will be an absolute handful.

“If we can go unbeaten for the next three games it will be an unbelievable start to the season.”