The Dragons were too hot for a young Aldershot X1, outclassing the visitors from the start on Saturday.
The home side picked up from where they left off against Crystal Palace, with flowing passing football, and were simply too strong for the mainly teenagers whose first team were hosting Stoke City.
Pleasing for manager Frank Gray and encouraging for the home crowd was that five different players made their way onto the score sheet.
Town lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation with a first sight for home fans of Wes Daly, and they were not disappointed, as Daly, deep in midfield with Jidi Ogunbote, looked to set up the play.
Shaun McAuley again impressed and looks to be the mid-fielder who will score goals that the Dragons have been in search of. It took him just five minutes to open the scoring, the visitors having been under pressure from kick-off, conceding when McAuley poked the ball home inside the six-yard area from a flicked-on corner.
Gray has made it clear that he is looking to bolster the defence and will have been very pleased with the performance of former Hayes and Yeading United and Woking full-back Toby Little. His performance at left back allowed Matt Warner the freedom to support the attack down the left side during the game and to get into some dangerous positions.
Town doubled the lead inside 10 minutes with a good run from Little ending in him being brought down in the penalty area. Ogunbote converted from 12 yards. The visitors had not settled or picked up the pace of the game and on 18 minutes found themselves three goals behind.
Delano Sam-Yorke found Tim Sills with a long pass and Sills, following some hesitant defending, rounded the keeper and slotted into the empty net. Sam-Yorke came close to scoring himself a couple of minutes earlier when closing in on goal a fine challenge prevented him from unleashing a shot.
After the initial burst of goals, the game went through a quiet period, but the home side always looked dangerous and Sam-Yorke produced a low save from Aldershot keeper Mikey Pearce late on in the first half.
Ashley Bayes had had little to do in the first 45 minutes, and before most of the crowd had settled down for the second half the visitors grabbed a goal back.
This was, however, short lived as the Dragons made it 4-1 on 51 minutes. Sills found himself in space down the left and as the cross came in the Aldershot defence failed to deal with the situation and Rob Rice slotted home with a miscued shot from 12 yards.
Rob Gradwell, another of the trialists to impress over the two games, netted his second in two pre-season games for the Dragons. A bursting run on 74 minutes saw him take a fine through-ball and hold off two defenders to beat Pearce one-on-one. Earlier, he had played Sam-Yorke in with a fine through-ball, producing another decent save from Pearce as the Town striker attempted to chip him.
There were many positives to take from this game, as Simon Dunn also had a good game in midfield, passing the ball well, and Joe McDonnell, replacing Bayes in the second half, produced a good save from a rare Aldershot shot on goal. One of the finest moments of the game came from on-trial defender Wilson Gondwe. The 18-year-old impressed at right back in the second half and his mazy crossfield run late on almost produced a wonder goal as he smashed his effort against the upright.
Town continue their pre-season at Hungerford today (Thursday) with a 7.45 kick-off.
