Thornwell R&W 6 Caldicot Town 0

KENNY Vidler struck three times to help relegated Thornwell’s bid to bounce straight back..

Vidler, who has rejoined Thornwell after a season with Mathern Reserves, was a constant thorn in Town’s side, swapping wings at will and keen to drive through the middle when possible.

He began the job, stooping to head low past keeper James Lawrence who was injured in trying to prevent the goal and was replaced by Andrew Hatch.

But the stand-in keeper had little chance with any of the remaining five goals and actually made a good save to deny Vidler later on.

Dean Corbett and Chris Rees put Thornwell 3-0 ahead at the break but the game was nowhere near as one-sided as the scoreline suggests.

Gareth Crispin was always dangerous and home keeper Dan Northey had to be brave  to smother a shot and then held a goal-bound free-kick.

With Neil Brown marshalling the defence and player-manager Terry Woodward a steadying influence, Thornwell dealt with Town’s efforts fairly easily.

Vidler struck soon after the restart to claim his second and to re-establish Thornwell’s control and after a golden opportunity for his hat-trick was saved by Hatch, scored with a much harder chance.

Jordan Locke wrapped up the scoring with the sixth goal in the dying minutes.

The clean sheet – their second of the season – pleased manager Woodward.

“After last season we needed to make ourselves a bit more solid defensively and that is what I have tried to do,” he said.

“I’m trying to get everyone working hard and having a bit more depth in the squad helps. In spells we played well but still need to do it for 90 minutes.

“Having Kenny back gives us energy up top but Danny Thomas has come in as well and been really good on the right.

“Goals have come from us doing the basics. We needed to stop shipping goals, make us hard to beat.

”It’s good to have Neil Brown as he talks really well. This is a good start although I think we played better when we beat Undy. We need to build from here.”

Town’s assistant manager Nathan Thomas was disappointed with the result but like many teams in lower divisions, Town often lose players to the Welsh League sides.

“We lost seven or eight regulars to the Welsh League sides because a number were unavailable and the knock-on effect filters down to us.

“Luckily, we have a large squad but we know that over a season, most, if not all of them, will play Welsh League or Welsh Reserve League football.

“It’s just the way it is.”