Whitchurch United 7 Alresford Town 1: ALRESFORD Town’s hopes of making up some ground at the bottom of the table were crushed in emphatic style by Whitchurch, who at kick-off on a wet, dreary afternoon at Longmeadow stood just one place above them.

Magpies manager Martin Beck gave debuts to defender Jack Goodship and striker Oliver Yates, while another new face, Ryan Davis, joined the game for the last quarter of an hour off the bench.

None of the Alresford players – new or old – will have much cause to look back on this game with any fondness. They created plenty of chances – Yates, Rian Jima-Otero and Aaron Blaxall all hit the woodwork in the first half, and two goals were disallowed for fouls. But plenty of good approach play was spoilt by hesitancy in front of goal.

The Jam Boys, by contrast, were clinical in their finishing. They took the lead on 13 minutes when Ben Kneller’s weak clearance was met by an exquisitely-executed Ryan Lambert volley that dipped over the stranded keeper and into the net. A second goal followed three minutes later, Rudy Plummer unselfishly squaring for Jack McCarthy to ram home.

Plummer made it 3-0 from the spot on 23 minutes when John Mulhern was penalised for handball, and three minutes after that Aaron Jarvis seized on another poor clearance and fed Danny Phillips, who ran through to score.

Phillips also scored the fifth, cutting in from the right and firing underneath the diving Kneller on 52 minutes. On 74 minutes Scott Hassell added a sixth with a point-blank header from a Jarvis cross.

Alresford pulled a goal back from Ben Thomson’s free kick. But Whitchurch completed the match with their seventh on 79 minutes when Jarvis skipped through a labouring defence and slotted the ball past Kneller.

There’s little time for the ailing Magpies to lick their wounds – Moneyfields visit Arlebury Park on Tuesday night for the first of three home games in a week for the Sydenhams Wessex Premier Division’s second-bottom side.