Welwyn Hatfield Sunday League - Premier Division

FC Town 5 Hatfield Sports 2

Grant Macaree scored a stunning hat-trick to maintain FC Town’s unbeaten
start to their first Premier Division season in an end-to-end 5-2 win over
local rivals Hatfield Sports at Lemsford on Sunday. Sports pressurised
FC Town right from the start with their fast, direct attacks with Joseph and
Newman giving the Town defence a torrid opening five minutes. But against
the run of play FC Town took the lead in spectacular style in the 7th
minute. With the ball cleared out of defence to Tom Mardle in midfield there
seemed little danger until Mardle spotted the run of Macaree out wide on the right and his superb defence splitting ball sent Macaree clear and from a tight angle he brilliantly lobbed Stewart in the Sports goal to give Town
the lead. Town then had to weather some anxious moments as Sports bombarded their goal and it came as no surprise when they equalised on 20 minutes when Joseph bundled the ball home following a corner. But Town hit straight back and following good work in midfield from Darryl Stewart and Bruce Tahon a chance fell to Macaree on the edge of the area and he rifled home through the keeper’s legs to restore Town’s lead.

FC Town then began to take control with Tahon, Stewart and Jack Earnshaw beginning to dominate midfield and should have increased their lead with several chances but their inability to kill the game off allowed Sports to get back into the match, and after Jamie Norgan had pulled off two outstanding saves to keep them out, they equalised right on the stroke of half time with a gift of a goal. There seemed little danger as Arnold played the ball back to Norgan but as he hesitated to clear
Joseph’s block tackle saw the ball trickle into the Town net for 2-2.
FC Town had to reshuffle in the second half with Mardle switching to centre
back and Terry Caswell coming on up front. And within five minutes of the
restart Caswell scored a stunning goal which was strangely ruled out by the linesman. But not to be outdone Caswell opened his account five minutes later following some superb play on the edge of the area, Earnshaw’s clever backheel left Caswell unmarked at the far post where he stroked home. Sports again pressed for the equaliser but found the Town defence, superbly marshalled by Mardle against his old side, a tough nut to crack. And in the 65th minute Macaree was sent clear to curl a brilliant shot past the stranded keeper to make it 4-2 and ten minutes later Caswell smashed a left foot volley into the top corner to finally kill off Sports.
Man of the match Grant Macaree