Author: Craig Davenport

19-year-old Archie Thurston wrote himself into the Pershore Town history books on Saturday, bagging his first senior hat trick against Lydney Town, and he’s already claimed the match ball as his new “bedside ornament.”

Archie spent last season at Bromsgrove Sporting U21s, where he made his first team debut against Bishops Stortford, but he’s now returned to Pershore determined to continue his journey in men’s football (and maybe to finally stop his dad telling him to “shoot more”). He’s no stranger to the club either, having come through Pershore Town U18s as a shining product of the player pathway.

He opened the scoring in the 30th minute after latching onto a Martin Fowler through ball , Martin has since claimed it was “definitely intentional.” Just three minutes later, Archie coolly doubled his tally from 10 yards after neat build-up play out wide, though he insists it looked better than it probably did.

Pershore controlled much of the game with goalkeeper Joe Cunneen so untroubled that, rumour has it, he started planning his Sunday roast during the second half.

Archie had to wait until the 70th minute to complete his hat trick from the penalty spot, though he did briefly toy with the idea of a “Panenka” before wisely deciding otherwise. Joel Hill then wrapped things up in the 86th minute to make sure Archie didn’t hog all the headlines.

Well Done Archie, we hope to be writing more of these for you!!

Every once in a while, football gifts you a story that writes itself. On this occasion, it came in the form of Jack W. Smith, who decided one goal simply wasn’t enough and went home with the match ball tucked under his arm. Yes, folks, we’re talking about his first ever hat-trick for Slimbridge in the Hellenic Premier League.

The first? Textbook stuff. Slimbridge strung together a move so neat it should be on display in the Tate Modern, and Smith finished it off like he’d been doing it all his life. 1-0, thank you very much.

The second? Pure chaos. Smith turned into Slimbridge’s very own vacuum cleaner, hoovering up a loose pass, racing through like his boots were on fast-forward, and rolling it past the goalkeeper before anyone else had realised what had happened.

And the third? That was the moment. The 76th minute, edge of the box, Smith wound up and smacked it like he was trying to send the ball back to Slimbridge High Street. It flew in, the crowd went up, and suddenly Jack W. Smith was that guy, the hat-trick hero.

The opposition defence will probably be having nightmares. The Slimbridge fans? They’ll be dining out on this one for a while. And Jack? Well, he’s probably already rehearsing how he’s going to casually drop “oh yeah, when I got my hat-trick” into every conversation for the next month.

Well Done Jack. Enjoy the football proudly sponsored by uhlsport

Usually found in defence, Callum Blackford swapped his full-back role for the number ten shirt and delivered a dazzling performance to claim the first match ball of the new campaign.

In just six blistering minutes of the first half, Blackford struck a sensational hat-trick – two thunderous 20-yard finishes, both supplied by Jake Love, followed by a cool far-post finish from a right-wing cross.

The drama didn’t end there. FC Stratford fought back brilliantly to level the contest at 3-3 by the 52nd minute, but in the dying moments it was Blackford again at the heart of the action, this time turning provider for James Piatek, who slotted home the 95th-minute winner.

All of this unfolded at the home of Shakespeare. As the Bard himself wrote in The Tempest:

“O brave new world, that hath such people in’t!”

Well Done Callum!