The Ladder leading Devonport Strikers made light work of last placed Clarence as they smashed 10 goals past them in a 10-1 demolition job at Valley Road on Saturday afternoon. The Strikers were utterly ruthless as their star attacking duo ran riot, Brayden Mann grabbed five goals and Michael Holden helped himself to three.

It didn’t take long for the Strikers to get the ball rolling as Michael Holden showed good composure in the box to stroke an effort home inside of five minutes and send them on their way.

Twenty minutes later he turned provider, setting up a goal for Brayden Mann with a fine cross field pass that led to Mann smashing one home from the top of the box.

Clarence were not deterred though and quickly pulled one back from a set piece. A free kick from Robb was swung into the middle of the box where the big frame of Grant Malcolm was waiting there to head home and pull it back to 2-1.

Any hopes of a Clarence fight back were quickly snuffed out though when Eddie Bidwell’s cross from the right was flicked on by Millington at the edge of the 6 yard box, to an unmarked Brayden Mann who made no mistake with a simple tap in at the back post!

Heading into the half at 3-1 would have been palatable for the Reds given how dominant Devonport had been, but they punished them further in added time of the first half adding two more goals.

First the impressive Henry Andrews smashed one in with a ferocious shot that flew in from the top of the box before Brayden Mann was again Johnny on the spot at the back post to steer home a corner and make it 5-1 at the half time break.

Devonport were not about to rest on their laurels either as the drove the dagger into Clarence in the second half and completely buried them.

Mann completed his hat-trick shortly after the restart when he again linked up with the dangerous Millington who continues to thrive as the target man in the Strikers offence to make it 6-1.

Clarence seemed to have stemmed the bleeding as they lasted 20 minutes without conceding, despite being hemmed back deep in their own end but 3 goals in the space of five minutes banished any thoughts of Clarence escaping further damage.

On 73 minutes it was Brayden Mann again, the captain slotting home his fourth of the afternoon by getting on the end of a cross from the wing back Liam Knott who spent plenty of time marauding forward down the flank.

Michael Holden then continued his offensive dominance by chalking up another assist, crossing onto the head of Dom Smith to nod home, before completing his hat-trick as he beat two defenders before smashing home another to make it 9-1.

Remarkably they still weren’t done though as Brayden Mann capped off his glistening display with a fifth goal, curling a superb free kick in off the post to end the match with a thumping 10-1 victory to.

Clarence now have some soul searching to do after falling to their heaviest defeat since earning promotion to the NPL and slumping to a 7th straight defeat.

Devonport meanwhile remain in top spot and will head into next week’s pivotal top of the table showdown against South Hobart at Darcy Street in peak goal scoring touch.