THE FIRST-GAME nerves soon dissipated for Pewsey Vale chief Nick Maggs as his side cruised to a comfortable win over East Cowes Victoria last weekend.

Maggs, who was taking charge of his first game as Pewsey manager, saw his team kick off the new Sydenhams League Division One season with a 3-0 victory at Ball Road.

Tom Whitham and Warren Macdonald found the net in the first period before Tom Ballard headed in Vale’s third of the afternoon and Maggs reckons that the scoreline could easily have been more emphatic.

“In the end, we hit the bar twice and 3-0 was a quite kind to them as a scoreline. We dominated the game from start to finish,” said the Vale boss.

“All I wanted from the game was points on the board and I wasn’t worried whether that was one or three.

“But we put in a very good performance and I think we showed that Pewsey might just have a chance of doing something this year.”

Maggs, who has re-signed striker Michael Martin, is expecting a much tougher test when his team host Toolstation League Premier Division outfit Sherborne Town in the extra preliminary round of the FA Cup next Saturday.

The Vale chief said: “They’re from a step higher than us, so you’d expect them to bring more quality than East Cowes did.

“I’m sure it’ll be a difficult game but we’ve just got to go out there and try to perform, and if it doesn’t go our way, we’ll just have to have another crack at it next year.”

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