Newark Town manager Luke Parsons reacts to 4-0 United Counties League derby win over Newark & Sherwood in final game of the season

Newark Town took manager Luke Parsons’ pre-match team-talk on board to blow away their local rivals on Easter Monday.

The Blues led Newark & Sherwood 3-0 inside 11 minutes at the YMCA thanks to goals from Brad McGregor, Luke Andersen and Matteo Perkins.

Louis Czerwak added a long-range fourth on the hour mark as Newark turned on the style in front of almost 500 fans.

Their slim play-off hopes were extinguished by a 3-0 defeat at Boston Town on Saturday, a fourth successive loss.

But they wanted to end on a high against the Highwaymen and the players didn’t disappoint.

Parsons, whose side have finished seventh in United Counties League Premier Division North, said: “It was a good way to finish and that’s what we said to the lads, we’ve let ourselves down over the last few weeks but we have to end the season beating our rivals and that would finish a good season.

“We had a good team-talk and said make sure you attack them from the first minute, don’t give them any time to get into the game.

“But even I couldn’t have wished for that start.

“The lads made everyone proud, from management to volunteers to fans, and they have all season.

“They really turned it on and gave the fans something back for the long journeys they’ve done and all the support we’ve had at home. That was our way of saying thank you.

“We scored some good goals. I really liked the second one.

“We managed to take them to the cleaners and pretty much ended the contest after 12 minutes, and then it was about not letting the foot off the gas.

“We did let them into the game a little bit and probably gave them a few more chances than we would have liked but the young keeper, Haydon McCarthy, came through and kept a clean sheet.”

Fans turned out in force, despite the heavy rain, showing how much a local rivalry means to the area.

It’s the first season the clubs have played at the same level and it’s captured the imagination of the town.

“This is what the town needs,” said Parsons.

“It needs rivalry, it needs this healthy competition.

“If it wasn’t raining I think there would have been more there but it was still a very good crowd on a Bank Holiday Monday.

“When you’re a two-club town, that’s what you’re going to get.

“The first task is to finish higher than your rivals and the second task is when you play each other, you beat them, so it makes healthy competition all round.

“We shouldn’t have had any right to finish above them.

“They finished last season well, and they’d have planned to build on that, whereas we had three weeks’ notice of Step 5 football and had built a squad to try and win the league at Step 6.

“We had to adjust and I think we’ve done phenomenally well.

“On paper, if you’d asked where we’d finish, I’d have taken third from bottom.”