Harleston Town 7, Cromer Reserves 1

HARLESTON completed a 7-1 demolition of Cromer Reserves in Anglian Combination Division Three with James Trudgill netting four times.

Harleston had a number of first-team regulars unavailable, so players from the reserves were drafted in – a first start of the season for Nabeel Razzaq and a place on the bench for prolific striker Robbie Rogers.

Having started slowly in previous weeks, Harleston got off to a flyer this time and found themselves a goal up after just two minutes when good work from Razzaq found Trudgill .

He glided through a number of challenges before sliding coolly past the keeper to open the scoring.

Harleston's good start got even better when they doubled their lead with their very next attack.

Fionn Goodwin Wright turning just inside the box and unleashing a powerful drive into the bottom corner to give Town a two-goal advantage with just five minutes on the clock.

The visitors looked shell-shocked as Town continued to push forward, with the keeper saving well from Razzaq.

Cromer themselves had a good chance to reduce the arrears but a well-taken effort hit the bar.

With the rain lashing down the game became scrappy. Harleston were still in the ascendancy, going close on a number of occasions but could not add to their early goals and the score remained 2-0 at the interval.

Town began the second half looking to find an early goal in order to kill the game off.

However, it was the visitors who found the net when their lively striker got between the Harleston centre-halves and finished well to pull the score back to 2-1.

At this point it looked as though the visitors were right back in the game, but it didn't take long for Harleston to restore their two-goal advantage when David Norman cleverly headed home a well-taken Jake Imrie free-kick.

Harleston now began playing some fine football, despite the heavy rain and muddy conditions.

The impressive Jake Imrie picked the ball up in midfield and beat two men before releasing a superb pass to Trudgill, who delightfully lifted the ball over the Cromer keeper to make the score 4-1.

Five minutes later Town scored again when Trudgill picked the ball up just inside his own half before beating three players and finally the goalkeeper to complete a hat-trick of the highest quality.

The impressive Razzaq tested the keeper with a fine 30-yard effort before having another effort saved from close range.

Rogers was introduced from the bench and went close on a couple of occasions before finding the net for his first goal for the first team.

Trudgill completed the scoring with his fourth goal of the game, a close range finish following an excellent cross from Fionn Goodwin Wright.

JD Young MoM: James Trudgill, four quality goals to take his tally to an impressive 23 in just 19 games.