THE race for the Peterborough Sunday Morning League Premier Division title is already a three-horse affair according to Racing 252 boss Scott Stainsby.
Despite it being only the first Sunday of the season, after watching his team destroy freshly promoted Royal Mail 11-1 on a day when Netherton and Lord Westwood also picked up wins, Stainsby (below) thinks he knows where the threat lies this season.
Having inherited much of Jubilee North End's championship side from last season, 252 have their eyes on the title and according to their manager, there are only two teams who can stop them.
He said: "We were expecting to win this match but no one really goes out there and expects to knock in 11 goals on the first day of the season so we have have to be pleased with our goalscoring form.
"Everyone knows there are a lot of Jubilee players here now," said the former North End boss, "but on Sunday we used mainly players who were here last season and we got the result.
"We want to win the league if we can which for us means beating Netherton and Westwood. They are the key games for us, no offence to the other sides in this league but I cannot see beyond those teams for potential champions."
Five goals for Jamie Graham and two for Gary Walker set up the Racing landslide with Jason Doggett, Sam Kingston, Dan Grigas and assistant manager Lee Tyler competing the scoring.
Elsewhere Lime Tree had a rude awakening to life in the top flight, going down 5-0 to Netherton while in Division One Cherry Tree enjoyed an altogether more productive start to life at a new level of football.
Having been promoted as champions of Division Two last season Martin Podzun's side confirmed their title credentials by beating Protelo 7-4 with goals for Lee Ibbott (2), Darren Maloney (2), Aiden Stamford, Robert Ames and Martin Fox.
Podzuns said: "We make no secret of the fact that we want to win at least two trophies this season.
"We won the PFA Junior Cup last season and if we win the Senior Cup this year we will be the first team to do it.
"And the other trophy I want us to win is the Division One title. We have only just been promoted but with the side I have here I expect us to be right up there in this league and beating Protelo is an excellent start."
Elsewhere Thomas Cook kicked off life in Division Two with a win while Borocars Citroen (formerly Perkins) were helped no end by four goals from Phil Dobbs as they began their Division Three campaign with a 7-2 win against Sporting SKS.
The full article contains 467 words and appears in Peterborough ET newspaper.