30min Hat Trick for Jay Kirkby!

Radford FC 1 Holwell Sports FC 5

Following the team’s strong performance against Borrowash they carried on with good work rate at Radford on Tuesday at a rain swept very windy Radford pitch.

Holwell looked up for it from the start and it wasn’t long before the traffic was one way towards the Radford goal and on 3mins Ben Smedley sent a dipping shot to goal which the Radford keeper did well to tip over. The forwards were working and linking well in passing moves with good work by Kirkby and a peach of a pass to Mooney put him in with a great chance to open the scoring but he blasted over from a good position. Mooney was again on song being a pest to the defenders at all times and gets sharper with every match now and pressure on a defender on the right allowed him to put in Kirkby but his goal bound shot was saved low down by the home keeper.

Even in the bad conditions Holwell’s play was high calibre and a move involving fit again Tom Morgan, Dominic Hallows and Lee Chapman presented Jay Kirkby with a decent chance on 15mins – which he gladly took to open the scoring. Two mins later Kirkby had the chance to increase the score but his header from a Hallows cross skimmed the top of the cross bar.

Radford were trying to play the offside trap but it failed miserably on 25mins when Smedley got in behind the defence to put in a cross where Kirkby met it on the full to put Holwell 2-0 up.

Holwell were all over Radford at this point with Mooney chasing down everything going into the home 18yard box – even Stuart Rose had a shot at goal on 30mins which the keeper did well to save.

Radford’s chances were slim but they won a corner on 29mins and Richard Cragg was alert to use a long ball which saw Mooney chasing and keeping in play near the edge of the home by-line and his resultant cross was gathered up by Dean Randall who again put in Smedley, quickly setting up Kirkby to shoot passed the keeper into the right hand side of the goal for his first Hat Trick of the season all score within 30mins.
Holwell seemed to sit back as the half wore on and were nearly punished on 44 mins when Radford got a shot away which just passed Cragg’s right hand post but on the stroke of half time the defence were all at sea and failed to cut out a cross from the right and Mahl had a free header to get one back for Radford. HT 1 -3

Disappointed with losing that goal in the last minute of the first half Holwell again came out strong at the start of the second half and 4mins in Mooney had a goal bound header amazingly saved by an instinctive point blank by the home keeper.

Radford at last were getting more into the game and showed the home fans that they were a force in this match and on 55mins Cragg pulled off a great save to keep Radford out.

As the half wore on Holwell defended well and gave trouble to Radford on the break but the result did not look in any doubt and on 74mins Lee Chapman crowned a great performance on the left when he latched on to a Smedley cross at the back post to put Holwell four one up.

Holwell brought on Ridout for Randall and Keast for Chapman towards the end and the tireless running of Scott Mooney paid off when he completed the rout on 90mins after a great through ball by Graham Keast set him up.

This result lifted Holwell up to seventh in the league and with the return from injury of Tom Morgan the defence looks to have gained some real stability after a shaky start to the season. This coupled with Mooney and Kirkby beginning to click up front things are beginning to look up at Holwell.