Walshaw smacks two as Scarborough Athletic kick off John Deacey era in style

There were a number of shaky moments for the men in red, but they negotiated a challenging hurdle with aplomb.

The first half of the Deacey era was positive, though they did have keeper Tommy Taylor to thank for the one-goal lead they took in for the half-time oranges.

Eyebrows were raised when James Walshaw signalled the confidence, letting fly with a volley from all of 40 yards after 10 minutes of the game.

That was soon followed by some intricate one-touch play from Boro that created plenty of worries for the Bamber Bridge back-line, but failed to yield any real openings.

There were alarm bells ringing among the Boro defenders as well, as they struggled to deal with the occasional Bridge barrage, both on the deck and in the air.

The hosts' top-scorer Alistair Waddecar angled a free header straight into the gloves of Taylor, then the Boro custodian made a glorious reaction stop to deny Matthew Dudley, who had found more space.

It was Boro who took the lead though and it came from absolutely nothing.

Ryan Watson collected the ball on the half-way line and marauded forward, before smashing the sweetest of drives off the post and into the net from all of 35 yards.

Boro keeper Taylor was eyeing more player of the month alcohol just after the half-hour when he burst off his line and got down well to brilliantly deny Adam Dodd.

Then right on half-time Dave Merris read a drilled ball into the box and nipped it off the toe of a poised Regan Linney.

The second half started with a bang for Boro, as they soon doubled the size of their cushion.

Kev Burgess got his head on a free-kick into the box and directed it goalwards, for Michael Coulson to stoop and bundle home.

Bridge's task of hauling themselves into the game was made a whole lot worse when a savage tackle on Luke Lofts earned Dodd a straight red card.

But despite this, they trimmed the lead back to one soon after following a foul in the box by Luke Dean. Waddecar stepped up and just managed to beat Taylor's arm from the penalty spot.

This sparked a crazy few minutes, with Boro making it 3-1 soon after.

Lofts delivered a free-kick onto the head of Walshaw and he powered it into the top corner.

Bridge were not spent as a force though and it was 3-2 in double-quick time. Waddecar turning well in the box and scuffing past a scrambling Taylor.

Now on numerous occasions this season Boro have thrown away points from similar positions, but not this time.

Instead, their top-scorer Walshaw took advantage of a charging run from Wayne Brooksby and he cracked a drive home to make the score 4-2.

And those worrying last few minutes that have inflicted the pain in recent weeks were seen out in regulation fashion to give Deacey an opening three-point haul.