Kanes League Two: Sporting Lesbian 1-7 We Hate Ben

A slightly weakened We Hate Ben side showed a level of dicipline and a lesson in finishing today after beating a team who were touted as favourites before kick-off 7-1 on Sunday.

We Hate Ben were fairly dominant in a ill-tempered match that threatened to boil over on several occasions. A determined defensive display worked wonders as a second-choice central defensive pairing of Alex MacDonald and Chris Webster (thrown together due to the absences of the Captain and Mike Jones) broke down almost everything with excellent clearing headers and last ditch tackling. The pair were unlucky to not win a Man of the Match for their efforts, as Liam Weaver produced a string of super saves to keep Sporting Lesbian from scoring, until a defensive error saw them get a consolation goal late on.

The defence was almost completed changed from last week's Cup defeat with Jason Dodsworth and Chris Townsend returning to the full-back positions. The midfield and attack were unchanged, and James Peate opened the scoring with a fine lobbed effort. He added to his tally with a second well-placed finish before adding a third to complete his hat-trick with a header. Peate's jubilation at securing only the third ever hat-trick in the clubs history was apparent as he slid on his knees to the corner flag. Hywel Williams chipped in with a fourth before the break, another well-placed finish.

The second-half saw Alastair England brought on as Peate seemed to be struggling with a recurring hamstring problem, but he in turn was substituted after ten minutes after struggling. Addy Egbeyemi, Iain Giessler and Danny Shaw came on for Jason Dodsworth, Ross Pope and Sean Mack respectivley to add some extra legs into the side as they pushed for more goals. An injury to Jack Thomas saw Paresh Bodalikar come on who duly obliged to hit an excellent shot from outside the area with his second touch which swerved into the net. Hywel Williams scored again with a tidy effort before Sporting hit back with their consollation goal. Williams then went through late on before suprisingly unselfishly squaring to James Peate who scored his fourth goal and his sixth of the season which seems him only three goals behind all-time top goalscorer Gareth Harvey. Ross Harvey came on to also make his debut with Shaw to close the game out with some good tackles late on.

A seemingly annoyed James Naik had this to say after the match. "I am very pleased with the result under what were difficult circumstances. I am disgusted that Sporting were allowed to get away with some of the late and even two-footed challenges, deliberate handballs and diving throughout the match. I am disapointed with the referee's failure to send off any of the other team but understand that his job would have been extremely difficult. I will be reporting the club to the ADL for their actions. However, although I am annoyed with them, I am throughly impressed with my lads for keeping their disipline apart from one incident, which will be dealt with internally. It is also important to note that the club are now top of the league and looking like we could challenge for the title."

Team (4-4-1-1)

Weaver - Dodsworth, MacDonald, Webster, Townsend - Mack, Thomas, Edgerley, Pope - Williams - Peate.

Subs: (used) England, Giessler, Shaw, Harvey, Bodalikar, Egbeyemi (unused) None.

Goals: Peate 4, Williams 2, Bodalikar.

Man of the match: Weaver