Skegness Town 5 Grimsby Borough Reserves 0


Borough, whose first eleven play in the Northern Counties East League, visited Burgh Road with a squad of teenagers.


But in the early stages their lack of experience in men's football was more than compensated for by their enthusiasm and spirit.


But once Starkey had given the seasiders a 34th minute lead there was only going to be one winner.


Town took time to settle and in the opening exchanges were guilty of overplaying.


Their first chance fell in the 15th minute when the hard-working Greg Brown made space for himself with some neat footwork but fired straight at goalkeeper Arron Richardson from 12 yards.


Attacks were breaking down on the edge of the Grimsby penalty area, but Town eventually made the breakthrough when Liam Papworth drew three defenders as he ran along the 18-yard line. He stabbed the ball to Starkey, who curled it into the top corner from the corner of the box, with keeper Richardson helplessly rooted to the spot.


Five minutes before the break the champions doubled their lead. Ben Chapman's cross from the left was met by Brown's challenge on the keeper. As the two recovered Brown hooked the ball across the goal area, where Andrew Shinn had time to place his shot into the bottom corner of the empty net.


On the stroke of half time Borough lost the services of Tom Hardy, injured in a 50-50 challenge with Andrew Shinn. In fact the full back was limping around when Starkey curled the second of his goals into Richardson's top corner, this time from 25 yards.


Three minutes after the interval Andrew Shinn beat Richardson to the ball only for it to rebound from the cross bar and away to safety at the Canteen End and then Papworth was inches wide with a far post header.


Brown was denied the goal his efforts deserved when Richardson got down well to his left to keep out his left foot shot.


And when Starkey was tripped by Tom Heaton in the 79th minute, regular penalty taker Brown sportingly threw the ball to Starkey, who was on a hat-trick. Although his spot kick was nowhere near as impressive as his earlier strikes, and Richardson easily saved it, Starkey followed in to score his third.


There was some debate about whether Starkey scored a fourth less than a minute later, but the official verdict was that, when his high cross from the left was missed by Richardson, Adam Shinn got the final touch before it crossed the line.


Skegness Town: Bunce, Harris, Chapman, Vaughan, Murrell, Appleby, Starkey, Adam Shinn, Brown, Andrew Shinn, Papworth, Bartlett, Lyon, Tuplin, McLuckie, Waters.


Grimsby Borough Reserves: Richardson, Hardy, Taylor, Pratt, Petronzio, C Carlton, Sinclair, Davey, Wadby, Carter, Waugh, Heaton, Armstrong, Knowles.