Peters proud of dazzling Stars

Despite squandering chance after chance, Oakwood took the lead through Dan Ash despite a huge shout for offside that referee Andy Myerson was unable to award due to the sloth-like reflexes of the Norstar linesman.

Crucially for Norstar, the pressure was relieved as they were awarded a penalty for a foul on Adam Kaldor. The Oaks defender definitely got to the ball but unfortunately for him went straight through the player to get there. In the absence of regular penalty taker Eli Houri, Simon Perlmutter stepped up and slotted home to put them home side back in the game.

Oakwood continued to threaten and create chances round the back of the Norstar full-backs but some wayward finishing meant there was very little for goalkeeper Ben De La Fuente to do although the cage behind the Norstar goal took one hell of a beating.

Some quick thinking from Jonny Kay in the midfield enabled Norstar to take the lead – against the run of play – when a through ball found Perlmutter on the halfway line and he beat the Oakwood defender for pace running all the way through to the opposition penalty area and dispatching a clinical finish into the bottom corner.

There was still time for Oakwood to get a goal back and again they punished Norstar by getting round the back of the full back, pulling the ball across and this time Ash made no mistake in finding the back of the net.

Norstar had a chance right on the stroke of half-time as Adam Jason was put through one-on-one with the Oaks keeper but the Oaks keeper made a fantastic save at his feet to deny the home side what would have been an undeserved lead.

2-2 at the break, both sides were more than aware that the next goal would be crucial and it was again Oakwood that started strongest creating more chances but still failing to trouble De La Fuente.

Having put in a great shift, Daniels was replaced by Jonny Isbitt on the left-wing and his first involvement in the game was a long throw right onto the head of Adam Kaldor who directed it beautifully into the top corner of the goal.

With the home fans driving on their team, Norstar started to raise their game and it wasn’t long before the fourth goal went in courtesy of some calamitous defending as an attempted clearance by the Oakwood defender his the inside of the post and came back out to Jason for the easiest of tap-ins to double the lead and give Norstar some breathing space.

From this point onwards Oakwood never looked like getting back into the game and the fifth goal soon arrived when Jason struck a free kick straight into the top corner of the goal. This was to be his last involvement of the game as cramp led to his withdrawal, being replaced by player-manager Peters.

Jamie Freed, failer of fitness tests, also came on and put in a hero’s performance at left-back after an injury to Sam Isaacs.

Norstar player-manager Phil Peters told JC Sport: "Based on the second-half performances, this was a game that we deserved to win. But Oakwood should have been out of sight in the first half.

"They cut through our make-shift defence at will but their finishing was terrible today and there’s no way it can be as bad again in the future – I’m just thankful that we won’t have to suffer the backlash.

“Oakwood are clearly a very good team and will be up there come the end of the season so it’s a great achievement to have taken six points off them at this early stage. They’ll definitely take points of our promotion rivals.

“We’re on course for a fourth-successive promotion but need to keep up this good form throughout the season. I couldn’t have been prouder of the way my players coped with the conditions today and the way we fought hard throughout the game when in the past we might have bottled it.

“Special praise for Adam Kaldor and Jonny Kay in the middle of midfield who ran the show today, and to Adam Jason up front who came in and was outstanding. It was great to see Perli amongst the goals as well today.

“Next week we have a well-deserved week off which comes at a great time with a few niggling injuries starting to appear. I couldn’t have asked for more from the boys today and there are a lot of first team players who are going to have to work incredibly hard to win their place back. But that’s a great position to be in and me and Slav are delighted with the way things are going at the moment.”

Oakwood joint-manager Ric Blank told JC Sport: "It was a strange game today and one we're very disappointed to lose. In truth, we should have been out of sight after 20 minutes but were only 1-0 up.

"A controversial penalty decision gave Norstar an equaliser and we found ourselves at 2-2 at half time. Again we started the second half the better but missed two golden chances before conceding the softest goal. That changed the game and after that we stopped playing and the final 30 was comfortable for Norstar.

"We continued to create chances but left ourselves open at the back and two individual errors let norstar put a gloss on the scoreline. Norstar took their chances very well and their centre forward Adam Jason was the best player on the park and caused us problems all game long.

"We must learn to be more clinical, less rash in the final third and to always always pass the ball quickly and easily. If we don't we will end up mid table at best so we can forget all this promotion talk.

"The final half hour was the worst football we've played in well over a year and won't be being repeated any time soon."