NEW College first-team coach Rob Hopkins says the future is bright if Saturday’s performance at Trowbridge is anything to go by.

The visitors scored twice in each half to wrap up an easy 4-0 victory in Division One West, all the more impressive given that the squad that went to Woodmarsh was a depleted one.

Lewis Watts, Lee Toomey, Gio Wrona and Tallun Courteney did the damage, the first two of those goalscorers being among the younger players in the side.

New College got their first when Nathan Blackford rolled the ball in behind the home full-back and Watts struck the ball into the net first-time.

Toomey added a second before the break and the third came courtesy of Wrona, who slotted home confidently. Courteney completed the rout following good work by Blackford.

Hopkins said: “We had a couple of drop outs late on as we had a bug sweep through the squad, and work commitments meant we were three or four players down.

“So we actually went to Trowbridge with seven under 18s players and weren’t expecting to get the result we did. We were maybe hoping for a win but not the performance we got.

“The 4-0 scoreline was probably not a true reflection, if we had had a couple more that would have been fairer because we dominated 80 per cent of the game.

“We were the stronger side and if we had been a little bit more clinical then we would have got more joy.

“The young lads stood up and really performed well, which is a boost looking towards next year.”

The New College coaching staff have always encouraged their team to play the passing game, an uncommon style in the Hellenic League.

But Hopkins said the nature of Saturday’s result vindicated that approach.

He said: “If you go on the forums, we get stick from teams who say we overplay and that we should be a little bit more direct, but we don’t do that.

“We set ourselves up to develop players so they become better technical players. We try to focus on possession football and it pays dividends two or three years down the line.

“Looking at the way the youngsters played yesterday, it does bode well for next season.”

“It wasn’t the best of surfaces and it could have done with a bit more grass on it.

“But we made the best of what we had and it was good to see we still passed the ball around and played from the back.”