Petersfield Town manager Connor Hoare was full of praise for his side as they returned to winning ways in style with a comprehensive 5-0 victory at United Services Portsmouth in the Wessex League Premier Division.

Liam Kimber (2), Tommy Tierney and Dec Seiden (2) scored the goals as the Rams ran riot.

Kimber broke the deadlock on three minutes when he got on the end of a Kieran Alcock cross.

Tierney doubled the visitors’ lead after 28 minutes when he slotted past the home keeper.

Seiden then slotted away two penalties on 32 and 46 minutes.

Kimber grabbed his second and the Rams’ fifth after 57 minutes. Alcock broke through on the flank and played a low ball across goal for Kimber to tap home.

“I was absolutely buzzing with the performance,” said Hoare.

“Performances lead to results – that’s what we strongly believe.

“We knew if we could keep the performances consistent – especially building on the Stoneham game and the Shaftesbury game – we were confident that if we could maintain that level of performance against teams in and around us we’ll get good results, and that was seen on Saturday.

“We were so intense, we didn’t let them breathe. We were really solid and compact. I thought it was a really good display. I was really proud of everything that the lads put into it. We can only guide them as staff and after we’ve said what we’d like to see it’s completely down to them. It was a really proud moment for the boys to show how good they can be – so full credit to them.

“It was a dream start from Liam. It was a really good move and the one thing Liam does is he times his runs well and runs at such intensity when the ball is in the box. He wants to score goals. He’s a really intelligent player, so to get the early goal settled the lads a little bit.

“We completely dominated the next 20 minutes after the goal.

“We moved the ball really well – it was excellent to watch and excellent to see.

“I’m glad Tommy scored. He worked really hard – it’s something that probably goes a bit unnoticed with Tommy.

“He’s so good on the ball I don’t think people realise how hard he actually works for the team. He puts in a lot of miles for the boys and he does that every week, so I’m really glad to see his hard work pay off.

“Dec’s in great form – it’s probably the form of his life.

“That’s completely down to him. We just asked him at the start of this season to not be as much of a link-up player as what he was at other teams and start scoring goals and be more hungry to score goals.

“He’s fully taken that on board and he’s applied it to a level that he’s in brilliant form and a lot of people are starting to talk about him again as a really good striker in the league, which is really pleasing for him to hear and pleasing for us to hear.

“We have a striker that we believe in and it’s good that other teams consider him a real threat – I’m delighted for him as well.”

Next up for the Rams is a home game against Andover New Street in the Wessex League Premier Division today (Saturday) at 3pm, and Hoare is expecting a tough test.

“Andover New Street will be physical,” said Hoare.

“They will work really hard and they’ll be direct.

“They’ve got good link-up players at the top of the pitch.

“We played them last year and Ross Cook is a really good striker – he’s a really good link-up striker. He scores a lot of goals – he’s a good player.

“We need to be really mindful about that and when we get the ball we have to play the way we play because in possession I do believe we’re a really good team.

“I believe the boys believe that as well. If we can continue exactly what we’re doing and make sure the performance level is there we’ll give ourselves a good chance.”