New-look East Preston are off to a flyer

EP beat Dorking Wanderers, who are tipped to do well this season in County League Division 2, 2-1 on Saturday and followed it up with a 3-1 success at Loxwood, who finished sixth last season.

But Di Paola said: “We’ve done well so far but it’s important not to get carried away.

“There’s still room for improvement but the team have gelled pretty well and I’ve been impressed with the lads and how they’ve gone about things in the first two games.”

At Loxwood on Tuesday, EP fell behind on 20 minutes when Loxwood caught them on the counter-attack.

EP levelled on the stroke of half-time when Charlie Oatway latched on to Matt Axell’s through ball and curled home an excellent left-footed finish.

Di Paola reckons his side had at least 15 good chances throughout the game and it took them until 17 minutes from time to go ahead.

After a team-passing move, Oatway popped up to notch his second, before substitute Barney Boutwood sealed the win with five minutes remaining.

George Gaskin also went close three times for EP, while Lee Garnham, Joe Shelley and Oatway all had two further opportunities each.

Di Paola said: “We played really well – 100 times better than on Saturday and it was a really good performance.

“We battered them for the whole game but just couldn’t score and we must have had 15 really good chances.”

East Preston are away to division-higher East Grinstead in the John O’Hara Cup on Saturday and then host Storrington in the league on Tuesday.

EAST PRESTON: Bryant; Brown, Duncan, Clark, Hibberd; Oatway, Barnard, Shelley, Axell; Garnham, Gaskin. Subs: Boutwood (Garnham 75), Gibbs (Hibberd 78), Meehan (Axell 80), Keat, Moss.