Two close range finishes from Stead within the first 30 minutes gave the Hatters a 2-0 lead going in at the break, before Arthur Read and Josh Neufville got on the scoresheet in the second half.

Town took the lead in the tenth minute, when Jack James made a surging run down the right and crossed it deep into the hosts' penalty area. Stead was there waiting six yards out and he made no mistake, volleying it in past Garry Malone.

Dunstable had the perfect opportunity to reply 11 minutes later, when Ryan Young was put through one-on-one with Tiernan Parker. The keeper spread himself well and denied the striker when he looked more likely to score, with Ciaren Jones on hand to clear it away.

Andy Awford's side made it 2-0 and it was that man Stead again, this time pouncing on an error from Malone who dropped James' cross, with the forward slamming it in from close range after 26 minutes.

Scott Belgrove was next to have a go eight minutes later – and he wasn't far away either – as Read teed him up to hit it from 20 yards and his side-footed effort struck the underside of the crossbar and somehow didn't cross the line, with the hosts quick to clear their lines.

Five minutes before the half-time whistle the Blues came close to halving the deficit, as Brandy Makuendi flashed a curling effort wide from the edge of the Town box, with Parker beaten.

The visitors didn't let up after the break, as just five minutes in Read calmly curled the ball in to the top left corner from the edge of box to make it three.

Town rang the changes on the hour mark and it took them a while to settle into the grove of the game.

However, when they did grow into it, it wasn't long before they had their fourth. Substitute Josh Neufville put the game to bed with an emphatic finish thirteen minutes from time when he took the ball down over his shoulder on the right side of the Dunstable box, before unleashing a powerful shot across Malone and into the left side of the Blues' goal to put further distance between his side and the hosts.

That goal wrapped up a superb result for the Hatters, who looked in control for a majority of the game.

Awford's side are next in action – at the same venue – this Friday, when they take on AFC Dunstable in the Bedfordshire FA Premier Cup final.

Town team: Parker, James (A Jones 60), Mead, C Jones, Byron (Panter 60), Peck (Swindells 46), Belgrove, Sorunke, Read (Richardson 60), Shamalo (Tomlinson 60), Stead (Neufville 60).

Image credit: L-S PHOTOGRAPHY