Suffolk and Ipswich League Senior title challengers Grundisburgh issued a warning to their rivals on Saturday with an emphatic 8-0 away win over Leiston St Margarets, with seven of the goals coming in a frantic 24 first half minutes.

Grundisburgh boss Mickey Squirrel was astounded at his team’s emphatic victory and admitted that he had never seen so much ruthlessness in front of goal in such a short period of time.

“It’s especially unusual to score so many goals in the first-half,” said Squirrel, who is somewhat of a Grundisburgh legend having won the SIL Senior title three times as manager and seven times as a player since joining the club in 1997.

“Usually when you win by such a big margin you score mostly in the second period when teams start to get tired but that wasn’t the case on Saturday, it was an unbelievable win.”

Pre-match, Saturday’s fixture looked a tricky one for Grundisburgh, especially considering that unpredictable opponents St Margarets had already beaten Achilles and Cranes on their own patch.

“Every time we went forward we looked like scoring – and that’s no exaggeration,” added Squirrel.

“We were terrific. It is normally a difficult place to go but we were outstanding.”

After top goalscorer Dean Tournay-Godfrey opened the scoring on 15 minutes, Grundisburgh ran riot with six goals in 24 minutes to average a goal every six minutes and leave the score-line reading 7-0 after just 39 minutes.

After a slow start to the season by their standards, Grundisburgh are now hot on the trail of league leaders Achilles and Squirrel’s men are determined to close down their rivals who currently hold a five-point advantage at the top of the table.

“The squad underwent a lot of change after last season’s disappointment and have taken their time to settle, but we look to have found our feet now,” said Squirrel.

“We’ve gone 11 unbeaten and have scored 21 in our last four, with five of those coming in the Suffolk Senior Cup game against Lakenheath which really kicked us into gear in my opinion.”

Rejuvenated Grundisburgh now face red-hot Achilles in consecutive games as the pair meet in the Bob Coleman Cup this weekend and in a top-of-the-table clash the following Saturday.

“It’s a massive double header for the both of us,” said Squirrel.

“In all honesty we can’t afford to lose the league game.

“We can’t afford to lose any more ground on them and that’s why winning the game is so vital.”

Grundisburgh will have to overturn their awful recent record against Achilles if they are to do so though, Squirrel’s men have lost their last five games against the current leaders.

Meanwhile, the goals continued to pour in the SIL as Crane Sports overcame Stanton 7-3 in a 10-goal thriller.