By Logan Marsh

The Douglas United Dragons have scored their finest victory of the season so far with a brilliant 4-0 victory over Edge Hill at Cassowary Park on Tuesday night.

A strong second half performance ensured their dominance was rewarded as the Dragons avenged for their mauling at the hands of the same opponent in the first round.

The win moves the Dragons closer to a top four spot and with a massive run of fixtures in the month ahead was just what was required. 

The Dragons started the match on the front foot with plenty of possession and positive intent although they were unable to fashion out many clear-cut chances.

It took a moment of brilliance midway through the first half from James Cooling to break the deadlock.

Cooling picked up the ball on the left and took on two and three players before lashing the ball into the bottom corner to give the Dragons the lead.

Edge Hill looked to respond and forced Gary Fitzgerald into a fine save, tipping the ball onto the crossbar.

Apart from this effort the Dragons defence, lead by stand in skipper Gary Cunningham and the outstanding Sam Buckler dealt with the pacey Edge Hill attack comfortably. 

The second half saw the Dragons increase their dominance over their opponents with Alistair Baird and Marty Friars having increasing success down the right hand side.

Cooling was becoming more and more influential and his last involvement before an unfortunate recurrence of a calf injury was to cross for Ian Marsh who could not quite direct his header past the Edge Hill keeper.

Nick Tither came on for the injured Cooling and immediately got himself involved in the action.

He headed wide from a deep cross and was involved in the build up that saw Matty Smith played in down the left.

His cross found its way through to Ian Marsh who tapped in at the far post to double the Dragons lead.

Tom Daly came on to replace a tiring Roly Gibson with about twenty minutes to go to make his first team debut and was straight into the action. 

The Dragons were firmly on top although there was still the risk of getting caught on the counter by the pacey Edge Hill side and Gary Fitzgerald raced off his line to save superbly on one such occasion to cap his best performance of the season.

After that chance the Dragons were able to put the game to bed with Nick Tither ghosting into the box to tap home the third and Ian Marsh adding his second as the match drew to an end.

The Paddy’s Bar Man of the Match went to Sam Buckler who was an absolute colossus at the back although there was any number of candidates in an outstanding team performance.

In the earlier match the Dragons reserves produced an equally impressive display to also record a 4-0 win and close the gap at the top of the reserve league table to 4 points.

Joe Bownes got the scoring underway with an absolute screamer with goals to Sam Neale, Andy Warburton and Billy Thomson.