Needham Market kicked off their pre-season campaign with a 5-1 win over Soham Town Rangers.
A first half goal from Joe Neal gave the Marketmen the lead at the break, with Ryan Miles netting a second half hat-trick and Kell Fiddy netting a late fifth to round off a great start to the club's 2026/27 preparations.
Needham had the first real chance (7'), Eddie Barker latched onto a good ball through down the left-hand side only for his great low strike to be flashed wide of the far post.
The Marketmen went close (10'), Tommy Smith threaded Barker down the left wing who in turn slid Lewis into the area whose first time shot was blocked.
Soham meanwhile forced the first save of the afternoon (18'). Skinner's clearance was intercepted but the stopper was equal to the resulting low effort across to his right.
Spurred on by that, Rothery's side broke the deadlock from the following counter attack. Myles Cowling was sent flying down the left wing in acres of space to square across on a plate for an easy tap in for Joe Neal, 1-0 Needham after 19 minutes.
Soham then looked to break onto the left-hand side (33'), but goalkeeper James Bradbrook - after Skinner rolled his ankle - read play superbly to gather the ball.
Soham had a player booked for a reckless stamp on Allen (32'), then Barker (35') saw a fierce strike blocked, ahead of Myles Cowling (40') seeing an excellent run past the defence and long range exquisite chip over the onrushing goalkeeper, into the net, ruled out for offside.
Marcel Lewis (44') fed Tevan Allen into space to shoot just outside the area, but the latter fired his shot over.
Needham had the final chance of the first half (45'+3'). Myles Cowling was set clear on the left-hand side whose tight angled effort was well smothered by the goalkeeper.
A much changed team emerged for the second half, as James Coton weaved into space with smart footwork just outside the area but shoots straight at the keeper just 40 seconds after the break.
Needham remained their front foot immediate start to the second half, drawing a double save out of the goalkeeper. James Coton's rasping strike was well saved by the diving keeper before Barker's follow up strike was also denied.
The game though quietened down until Flynn Bobby (57') drove onto the left-hand side only to see his excellent cut-back just cleared.
After a smart low save from James Bradbrook to claw away a low strike down to his left-hand side (65') - Needham swiftly extended their lead with 2 quickfire goals.
Ryan Miles marked his return from injury with 2 well taken goals in 3 minutes. Both racing down the right-hand side, the first into the bottom left-hand corner, prior to lashing home his second into the opposite corner.
Soham (71') reduced the deficit back to 2 goals with a well hit strike from distance, before excellent defending from Hammond (74') thwarted a second goal with a perfectly timed last ditch challenge after the hosts were released through one on one with Bradbrook.
Miles (81') completed his hat-trick with another brilliant finish. The forward cleverly threaded Coton onto the right wing, who returned the favour with a brilliant through-ball for the former to turn and fire his third into the bottom left-hand corner!!
Hammond (85') found James Coton unmarked with a good left wing corner, but the winger's far post effort went over.
Needham added a fifth goal in style on 87 minutes. After a foul on Miles, Hammond took it quickly to feed Flynn Bobby down the left wing to wrap a fantastic low ball across the danger area for fellow Academy graduate Kell Fiddy arriving to tap home.
Manager Tom Rothery said, "always good to win, get the lads back into game mode. They’ve trained really well in the first 2 weeks so it was nice to see where they were at after the break. Obviously lots of changes and players limited to certain minutes on a very hot day. Only negative was the few knocks we got.
"I thought the goals were all really well taken. Great perseverance and quality from Mylo and good for Joe to be in the right spot. Ryan took his goals really well there was some really quality in those and good assists from Flynn and Jameo and then a nice finish from Kellen after another good assist from Flynn."
"I thought we had some good phases that came out we’ve only done a little bit of shape work so that’s positive. Work rate throughout I was really pleased with and that was the main thing that I asked for from the players at the start of the day."
On Ryan Miles netting a hat-trick on his return, "yes really pleased, I said last season he was a miss and he showed why today. He’s taken a naughty knock today which hopefully isn’t too bad. Huge credit to him, he’s worked really hard to make sure that he was ready to start pre-season with everybody else."
Speaking about Luke Ingram being replaced, "Not great news that one, he’s caught it early which is why we brought him off but same hamstring as back end of the season so that will take some work and time out sadly before we see Luke again."
When asked about having the majority of the squad available, "I’ve said many times this is a great group, the environment is excellent and they’re all fully invested so it’s great that we can really set standards and work how we want too."
Looking ahead to Thursday's Suffolk Champions Charity Cup clash with Halesworth Town, "Another good game for us, I’ll be nice to play at home and get more minutes into the players and keep trying to work on what we are training through. We have a session Monday then two games next week so it’s great to have football back."
Ryan Miles added, "Yeah really happy! Been a long time since being in the match day squad but just to get a few minutes in me with no problems is best thing about it.
"Good win, pre season is always a weird one because your there to get fit, get a feel for it again but it’s still good to get results to run in to the season with a try carry momentum.
"Delighted with the 3 goals and the 3 finishes, will be more better if I can replicate that in a league game where it really means something, but overall happy with it."
Reflecting on his hat-trick, "More relief than anything, when I got injured back in December I felt I was in some decent form. So picking up from where I left off was a great feeling!
"It’s great for a striker to grab some goals as that’s what I'm there for. But really just happy with being back out there enjoying it with the lads again!"
Needham 1st Half: 1 Charlie Skinner (29' 1 James Bradbrook), 2 Jake Dye, 5 Keiran Morphew (C), 8 Kellen Fiddy, 3 Tommy Smith, 4 Kyle Hammond, 18 Eddie Barker, 11 Tevan Allen, 16 Marcel Lewis, 9 Joe Neal, 15 Myles Cowling.
2nd Half: Bradbrook, 19 Trialist, 2 Dye, 6 Dan Morphew (C), 4 Hammond, 17 Ben Hunter, 18 Barker, 14 James Coton, 10 Ryan miles, 7 Luke Ingram (64' 20 Fiddy), 12 Flynn Bobby.
Booked - S4 (32')
Goals: (71'); Neal (19'), Miles (65', 68', 81'), Fiddy (87')
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