Billinge bounced in emphatic style from last week’s defeat as they thrashed Malpas 9-2 at Barrows Farm on Saturday.

A hat-trick from Phil Dearden, braces from Jon Redmond and Lucas Weir and a goal apiece from Liam Bowden and Liam Platt saw The Storks home against a Malpas side that never gave up but looked a mere shadow of the side that finished runners-up last season.

One of Billinge’s traits so far this season is that they have been slow out of the blocks and while Malpas had a corner in the first minute The Storks were soon in the action as Dearden brought a fine save out of the visitors keeper Harry Fleet on four minutes.

From the resultant corner Fleet produced another excellent save, this time to deny Richie Allen.

However on nine minutes The Storks were ahead when full-back Dave Blakeney drove forward before producing a fine through-ball for Dearden to latch onto and fire home from 12 yards.

A minute later Billinge doubled their lead as Dean Curtis’ pass found Redmond who experts chipped the oncoming Fleet for his first first-team game of the season after missing the whole of last term through injury.

It was another first four minutes later as Weir unleashed a 35-yard drive on his full debut to make it 3-0 to The Storks and give the classy midfielder his first goal in a Billinge shirt.

Credit must go to Malpas - who dusted themselves down and settled into the game with Noah McCain bringing out a great save from Billinge keeper Tom Darbyshire on 18 minutes.

This seemed to spur on The Storks as, firstly, Dearden rattled the post before a long ball from Ryan Platt was met by Liam Bowden who shrugged off two defenders and finished superbly for a goal on his first appearance of the season that made it 4-0 with just 20 minutes gone.

Five minutes later Harry Cunningham reduced the lead from the penalty spot after Blakeney was adjudged to have handled the ball.

However the four-goal advantage was restored when Dearden got his second and The Storks’ fifth as he thundered the ball home from a tight angle.

Billinge then made it 6-1 on 41 minutes when Redmond got his second with a 20 drive.

The second-half proved not to be as action-packed but there was still time for four more goals and numerous near misses.

Curtis had two efforts well-saved while at the other end Cunningham hit the side netting and Darbyshire tipped the ball over the bar after a great shot from Stuart Dickin.

However on 64 minutes it was seven-up for The Storks as Weir fired home a well-executed 25-yard free-kick.

Moments later Dearden shot high and wide and then had a shot saved by Fleet.

Fortunately for Billinge the save rebounded to Liam Platt who cut inside and shot through a crowd of defenders to make it 8-1.

There were further chances for Allen and Redmond to add to the score but it was Dearden that made it 9-1 on 87 minutes as he took the ball around the keeper and fired home to get his hat-trick and head to the top of the Premier Division goalscorer chart with 11 goals in nine appearances.

It was Malpas that got the final goal as Cunningham beat Darbyshire with a fine 20-yard shot to make the final score Billinge 9-2 Malpas.

After the game Billinge manager Matt Potter said, “Believe it or not we were not totally happy at half-time despite going in 6-1 up we felt we had many areas to improve on.

“But at the end of the day we’ll take the final score and second place in the division and move on to the next game.”

That next game is a quick turnaround as Billinge visit Malpas next Saturday for the return fixture; one in which the home side will be looking for a significant improvement.

It was a good day for the Billinge club as the reserve team won 4-1 away at Broadheath Central Reserves with Ryan Sephton (3) and Harry James getting the goals, consolidating their fourth position in the division.