FOUR unanswered goals were just the tonic needed as injury-ravaged Leatherhead breezed past Walton Casuals on a bitterly cold Saturday afternoon.
And it must have pleased Tanners boss Richard Brady that all four of the goals came from players he had brought into the Fetcham Grove club.
Brady gave home debuts to midfielder Andrew Burns, a loan signing from Dagenham & Redbridge, and the experienced striker Allan Tait, brought in this week from Met Police.
Jamie Coyle made a welcome return for the Tanners at right back, while Dan Palfrey was drafted in on the left side of defence as cover for the injured Neil Jenkins.
Casuals featured several familiar faces in their starting line up, with five of their 11 having played for Leatherhead at some stage in their careers.
Former Tanners favourite Greg Andrews had a largely quiet afternoon, but another former Leatherhead player missed out on a good opportunity to give the visitors an early lead.
Following a quiet opening the ball was played down to Leatherhead's by-line after seven minutes and delivered to an unmarked Mu Maan 15 yards from goal.
But the former Tanners midfielder missed the visitors' best chance of the afternoon, scooping his shot high over the bar.
That miss was to prove costly for Casuals, as Leatherhead took full control in midfield and began to impose their authority with a wave of attacks.
Tanners took the lead after 20 minutes. Tommy Hutchings skipped past his marker at half-way and fed an exquisite pass through to Tait, who took one touch before instinctively placing his shot past goalkeeper Gareth Williams from the edge of the area.
Leatherhead doubled their lead three minutes later as Mark Simmons sent a delightful free kick across the width of the Casuals penalty area for Coyle to head home from close range.
The visitors had little to show in response.
An Andrews free kick was headed wide by James Tyrell before two former Leatherhead players made way for another couple of ex-Tanners early in the second half, with Sol Patterson-Bohner replaced by Kwabena Agyei and Dylan Cascoe coming on for Maan.
Leatherhead required more width going forward and Kev Terry made way for Liam Wright after 64 minutes.
Wright made an immediate impact on the left, getting past his marker to feed the ball through to Hutchings who in turn forced a good save from Williams.
Leatherhead kept searching for a third goal and it duly arrived after 80 minutes. Casuals failed to clear a corner from the right and Sam Blackman latched onto a poor clearance to smash the ball home from twenty yards.
In the final ten minutes Casuals were content to concede corner after corner, barely managing to get the ball into Leatherhead's half.
Tanners scored their fourth goal after 87 minutes as the visitors once again failed to deal with a corner. The ball was steered off the goal line three times in as many seconds before Wright stepped forward to blast it home at the fourth attempt.
As the match moved into injury time, Casuals captain Craig Lewington bravely launched one final attack for the visitors, taking the ball to the edge of the Leatherhead penalty area before releasing it to Cascoe.
But the former Tanners midfielder summed up a miserable afternoon for Casuals by hitting a weak shot straight into the arms of Leatherhead keeper Andrew Young.
Leatherhead: Young, Coyle, Palfrey, Nnamani, Boulter, Burns, Thompson (Blackman 72), Simmons, Tait, Hutchings (Flack 81), Terry (Wright 64)
Unused subs: Smart and Greener-Simon
