By Logan Marsh

The Douglas United Dragons have picked up where they left off last season by comfortably accounting for Stratford in the opening game of the 2016 season. 

There may have been quite a few personnel changes to the Dragons line-up but new coach Ian Marsh looks to have the team firing early as they raced out of the blocks to assert their dominance over a cautious Stratford outfit.

Matty Smith and Max Taylor in particular combined well down the Dragons left, causing the majority of the problems and had the final pass or shot been better the Dragons could have been a couple of goals to the good in the early stages.

Instead they were unable to find a way past the Stratford keeper leaving stand in keeper Joe Bownes to deal with the odd counter attack from the home side.

Finally as the half drew to a close the Dragons were able to capitalise on their dominance as Matty Smith was released down the left via a neat Daniel Ferrero pass. He squared the ball to target man Baz Fellows who slid in to turn the ball home. 

It was a lead that they would comfortably hold until the half. 

The only blight on an otherwise outstanding first 45-minutes was the injury suffered by Conor Lemon, younger brother of premiership winning star Ciaran. 

It is hoped that the knee injury is nothing serious and he will be fit to take on Edge Hill this weekend.

The second spell adopted a similar theme with the Dragons resuming on top without being able to put the game to bed. 

This came back to haunt them as Stratford managed to pull a goal back with about twenty minutes to play. 

The got in behind down the Dragons right and squared the ball to be bundled home in very similar fashion to the Dragons own opener.

Regrouping, the Dragons pushed again, forcing a series of corners. After some close misses, Logan Marsh managed to get a header on target and having it sneak through a crowd of players to restore the Dragons lead. 

Another corner was to see the icing put very firmly on the cake. A deep Matty Smith corner was met on the volley by Joe Foz who nearly ripped the net clean off the goal such was the ferocity of the shot.

That goal was a great way to round out an impressive victory although it was soured late on by the sending off of Fellows, who continues his less than impressive disciplinary record for the club. 

The man-of-the-match award went to Matty Smith who assisted all three goals and was a menace throughout.

Next up is a Sunday morning home match against Edge Hill with the Dragons looking to make it two-from -two in this 11am kick off.