ON Chenecks 2
Holbeach United 4
Jack Smith helped himself to a hat-trick on his Holbeach United return as the Tigers battled back to beat hosts Northampton ON Chenecks 4-2 on Saturday.
On another day hit by postponements due to the weather, the Tigers looked set for a long day when they fell 2-0 down early on at Billing Road after goals from James Elkington and Charlie Wixon.
But Smith, re-signed from Pinchbeck United last week, led the charge as Holbeach roared back in the Future Lions UCL Premier Division clash.
He netted three times to put Danny Hussey’s side ahead, before winger Billy Smith rounded off the win before half-time.
Despite the victory and a third league win on the spin since he took the reins, Hussey wasn’t overly happy with what he saw.
He said: “It was a really bizarre game, actually.With the weather the way it was and the wind up, I was expecting a scrappy 1-0.
“Fair play to them, their lad scored an absolute ‘worldy’ early on and then they added another goal soon after.
“At 2-0 down after about eight minutes I was obviously a bit worried. But, to be fair to the lads, we got back into the game and played some good stuff.
“We scored a few goals from set-pieces, which is great as you work on those in training. Jack Smith’s second goal was a screamer – if it was scored in the Premier League, people would be talking about it.
“I was actually really happy at half-time and let the lads know. We had the wind behind us in the second half, but we came out and and looked really poor. We defended well, but there was no creativity and it wasn’t good enough going forward.
“We won the game, but I let the lads know afterwards that it wasn’t really good enough.”
Tigers: Drury, Clay, Braithwaite, T Smith, Jackson, Tinkler, Ford, Bird, Tricks, J Smith, B Smith. Subs used: Davies, Hamilton, Harker.
