HIGH-FLYING Hexham hit Stobswood Welfare for six during a rampant performance on Saturday.

After an impressive start to their league campaign, the green and whites switched their attention to the Northumberland Minor Cup.

But the distraction didn’t affect the form of Martin Lowes’ confident side, which had won five of their opening seven league fixtures before Saturday’s cup clash.

It took just 14 minutes for Hexham to break the deadlock. Striker Kurtis Harvey’s well-timed through ball was met by Peter McRoberts, who chipped the ball over the advancing keeper from just inside the box.

Six minutes later, Callum Duncan carried the ball out of defence and spread the play to Robbie Pattison wide on the left. The winger crossed for Harvey to head down into the path of Will Forsyth, who made it 2-0.

Shortly afterwards, Pattison intercepted a pass between two Stobswood defenders and made a run for goal. He cut inside from the left before unleashing a formidable right footed strike to make it 3-0 after just 25 minutes.

Stobswood pulled a goal back just past the half hour mark, but Hexham scored their fourth goal before half time.

On 40 minutes, a Forsyth corner led to an aerial challenge between Harvey and the Welfare goalkeeper.

The striker’s header was tipped onto the crossbar, but the ball fell kindly into the path of Harvey, who tucked away the rebound.

Hexham didn’t take their foot off the pedal in the second period. In the 65th minute, Lewis Loughhead supplied McRoberts, who raced away down the left before cutting inside and laying the ball off for Harvey to finish with a neat side-footed shot to the goalkeeper’s left.

The hosts completed the scoring a quarter of an hour from time, when McRoberts was adjudged to have been fouled in the penalty area, and Duncan scored the resulting spot kick.

Hexham played the match on the 4G pitch at Prudhoe High School, due to the temporary unavailability of their regular pitch at Wentworth Leisure Centre. On Saturday, Hexham will turn their attention to the Reeves Independent George Dobbins League Cup.

They have a home tie against Forest Hall, which will take place at Wark Sports Club, at 2pm.

Lowes said: “We’re on the road a bit just now, but we just have to focus on playing football. Saturday was an excellent all-round team performance.”