Saturday, October 12, 2005

HITMAN Leon Kelly blasted his first ever Worcester City hat-trick -- now he wants to be a TV star!

Charging at Hednesford Town's poor defence like a bull in a china shop, striker Kelly was unstoppable and unrelenting.

He menaced his way to three goals -- amazingly his first Nationwide North strikes of the season -- while George Clegg, Adam Webster and a Les Hines penalty completed the rout.

But Kelly does not want to stop there, as Worcester prepare for tonight's monumental FA Cup replay with Chippenham Town.

The winners book a BBC-televised second round tie against Huddersfield -- and the former Ilkeston Town striker is desperate to show off his talents on the box, as well as inside it.

"I can't wait for the replay," insists Kelly. "There's no nerves, just confidence. It's going to be buzzing because we can be on the telly if we win the game! That's what I want.

"It would be a dream and I've been dreaming about it for ages. Hopefully, we can do it against Chippenham."

On his one-man destruction of Hednesford, Kelly added: "It was absolutely brilliant. That's my first hat-trick for the club, so I'm really happy.

"I would have been happy with one goal and a win, but to get three is great. I was closing down a lot more and forcing them into mistakes.

"I've never been one to say that I'm going to score 25 goals a season. As long as I play well and we win, that's all I'm bothered about."

Clinical City deserved their half-dozen total, which vastly improved their previous meagre tally in the `goals for' column, but they were aided by Town's defensive horror show.

In particular, error-prone goalkeeper Richard Brush, deputising for the injured Tom Whittle, had an afternoon to forget as gleeful City opened their early Christmas presents.

To compound a terrible performance, Brush was sent off for hauling down Kelly inside the penalty area.

It was a walk in the park for Worcester, whose supporters hope this mauling serves as a starter for tonight's main course.

City initially took receipt of Brush's inadequacies in the seventh minute.

He palmed away Webster's volley from Rob Warner's high delivery, but Clegg's scuffed follow-up slipped from his grasp and squirmed over the line.

Kelly delivered three minutes later, shooting through the legs of a back-tracking Brush from a tight angle after powering past Richard Teesdale.

That knocked the stuffing out of Hednesford, but more followed. With the sun shining in his eyes, Teesdale fluffed Danny McDonnell's long punt and Webster took advantage by slotting into the bottom corner.

Brush was guilty of an identical mistake on 36 minutes. Facing the sun's glare, he committed a cardinal sin by not donning a baseball cap and completely missed his kick, allowing Kelly to score from a yard.

The scoreline embarrassed the sorry Pitmen, although the arrears were reduced with the game's best goal, Colin Hunter firing into the top corner from 25 yards.

Anxiousness crept in to City's game after Town struck again on 61 minutes. Justin Thompson's flick back-pass fell well short of McDonnell and Rob Heath raced in to volley home.

But any nerves that existed soon settled down when Worcester fired their fifth from the penalty spot.

Rampant Kelly raced past three defenders and looked certain to finish until Brush hauled down the big man.

Brush was shown the red-card and, having used all three subs, winger Hunter took the 'keeper's jersey.

A sweet moment followed for the re-called Les Hines, who swept home the spot-kick against his former club.

Kelly completed his hat-trick with 12 minutes left, again shrugging off Teesdale's challenge before slotting home.

CITY: McDonnell, Warner, Hines, Smith, Thompson, Lyttle, Colley, Hyde (Jones 69), Kelly, Webster (Preece 77), Clegg (McDonald 66). Subs not used: Hodnett, Warmer.

ATTENDANCE: 1,278.