Southern Division One Midlands

Dunstable Town 4 Barton Rovers 2

Dunstable Town put four past bitter rivals Barton Rovers at Creasey Park for the third season running to earn their first victory of the current campaign.

It was a former Rovers player, Stuart Strange, who did the damage with a brace, while Krzysztof Matyskiewicz and Darrell Elliott were also on target for the home side.

Dunstable went into the clash looking for their first point of the season after defeats in each of their opening three league games.

Rovers meanwhile, looking to build on a steady start to the campaign, were keen to erase the memory of their last two visits to the same ground, where they had shipped eight goals.

But it was Lee Cowley's Blues who completely dominated the first half and would have been out of sight by half time had they been able to convert their chances.

In the fifth minute, Jonno Barnett flashed a free-kick just wide of the top left hand upright, before Stuart Sinclair saw a shot cannon back off the cross bar six minutes later.

On 18 minutes, ex-Rover Strange went close with a header from a looping cross while, seconds later, Luke Maitland's cross from the left fell perfectly for the unmarked Barnett, but his first time shot wasn't good enough to beat Martyn Patching.

The visitors' first real effort on goal came after 23 minutes, when Josh Sozzo did well to ride over a couple of challenges but, unfortunately for the Barton hitman, his dipping left-footed effort ended up on the roof of the net.

Striker Maitland was having a frustrating afternoon in front of goal for Dunstable. After half an hour, he picked up the ball and surged unchallenged towards the box, but could only fire a weak shot straight at Patching when he really should have done better.

A minute later, he found himself clean through again, but this time his low shot was deflected behind by Patching for a corner.

For all the chances that fell the way of the home side, it was Barton who grabbed the opening goal, against the run of play, on 34 minutes.

Sozzo's perfect through ball split the home defence in half and ran neatly into the path of Alex O'Brien, who galloped through and confidently struck the ball past Paul Taylor to open the scoring for Barton.

Tommy Hayes then had a glorious opportunity to double the lead on 42 minutes, but was denied a goal on his return to Creasey Park thanks to a brilliant reaction save by Taylor.

And, after going so close to earning themselves a two-goal cushion, Barton then got pegged back as Dunstable grabbed the goal their deserved goal right on the stroke of half time, when the ball fell kindly for Strange inside the box, who lashed an unstoppable right footed shot high into the roof of the net.

After the break, it was again Dunstable who had the lion's share of possession as well as the better of the ball in the final third.

Strange stung his former side yet again on 59 minutes to put the home side in front, before substitute Elliott fired over an inch perfect cross from the right straight onto the diving head of fellow sub Matyskiewicz to make it 3-1, shortly afterwards.

Provider then turned goal scorer as Elliott capitalised on yet more haphazard Barton defending when he rushed through to clip the ball over a stranded Patching and seal three very welcome points for Dunstable.

Defeated Barton did at least add some respectability to the result, courtesy of a Sozzo penalty on 82 minutes, but that couldn't hide the fact they were well beaten by their neighbours and, have a lot of improving to do if they want to be pushing for promotion come the end of the season.

Blues: Paul Taylor, Ross Hanley, Leigh Harrington, Lee Burgoyne, Nick Nolan, Moses Oyeleye, Richard Harker, Jonno Barnett (Ryan Cowley 89), Stuart Sinclair, Luke Maitland (Krzysztof Matyskiewicz 37), Stuart Strange (Darrell Elliott 65).
Subs not used: Dean Whittaker, Ryan McLaughlan.

Rovers: Martyn Patching, Nathan Liburd, Parys Okai, Stuart Beever (Wayne Mills 68), Matt Childs, Stuart Deaton (Paul Covington 25), Liam George, Tommy Hayes (Andy Reed 65), Alex O'Brien, Josh Sozzo, Robbie Kean.
Subs not used: Matt Edge, Michael Cordwell.