Harrow Borough consolidated their fourth place in the Southern League Premier Division South as they opened 2019 with a barrage of goals after brushing aside bottom-of-the-table Staines Town 5-1 on New Year's Day.

Steve Baker named the same team that had started Saturday’s roller-coaster 4-3 defeat to Kings Langley, but made a change in formation, with Mitchal Gough employed in a deep-lying midfield position instead of as a member of a three-man central defence. He went on to have an outstanding game.

Both sides were to have early chances but Louis Dixon was beaten for the first time in the 11th minute when Nathaniel Oseni’s long ball forward found Ryan Moss outpacing a defender to place a first time finish low past the Staines keeper's right hand.

Harrow continued to press and doubled their lead in the 28th minute when a perceptive pass from Gough sent Michael Bryan away on the right and his cross was nodded home at the far post by Dylan Kearney.

Bryan got in on the scoring act 10 minutes later when Moss rose to head the ball on, Kearney cushioned it into the little Ulsterman's path who ran on to smack the ball home left-footed from 15 yards.

Borough could have been even further ahead either side of the interval, but they were to have a flat period before their fourth goal arrived in the 70th minute. Gough’s pass sent Kearney in on the right, his low shot was pushed away by Dixon but Jordan Ireland was up in support and he tucked away his second goal in three games.

To their credit, Staines’s youngsters kept trying and in the 75th minute Harrow keeper Hafed Al-Droubi saw a potential clean-sheet disappear when a cross from the right was firmly headed in from close range by an unmarked Andy Ali.

But three minutes later Harrow got a fifth, and again it was a Gough pass that set it up, as he fed substitute Anthony O’Connor on the right and he tucked a low shot past Dixon from a tight angle.

Next up for Harrow is a double-header of games with a Metropolitan Police side that are three points behind them having played three games fewer, at the Rogers Family Stadium on Saturday and at Imber Court on Tuesday.