WINCHESTER City flexed their Sydenhams Premier muscles by slamming seven past Fawley AFC on the Waterside tonight .

Russell Cook led the charge with a hat-trick and, had it not been for some outstanding goalkeeping from the Oilers’ Joe Prodomo, City could have had more.

Prodomo previously played for Graham Kemp at Christchurch and the City boss admitted: “It’s no secret that I tried to sign him for Winchester, but he stayed loyal to Fawley.

“He was their best player by a mile tonight. No disrespect, but if it hadn’t been for him we’d probably have got five or six more.”

City were three to the good at half-time with Cook striking twice and Dan Thompson once.

Ben Osborne made it 4-0 before Cook completed his hat-trick.

Tom Price netted number six and ex-AFC Totton and Sholing midfielder Jamie Austen came off the bench to head the seventh.

“There was a little bit of frustration from fans after Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Moneyfields because expectation was so high, although personally I thought it was a good performance,” said Kemp.

“We had a little tweak of formation tonight and got off to a good start and, once the first goal had gone in, we grew in stature.

“We’re still a team in progress, but if we can hang on in there for the first ten games, we’ll see where we can go after that.”

It was a good night too for Kemp’s old club Christchurch who kicked off their league campaign with a 3-1 win over Premier Division new boys Whitchurch United.

Veteran Priory striker Gareth Barnes started and finished the scoring, sandwiching his goals around efforts from Shane Lock for Whitchurch and teammate Marc Fairbrother.