Taylor scores hat-trick as Town continue impressive pre-season form
STRATFORD Town's eye-catching pre-season form continued as Mike Taylor’s hat-trick powered them to a convincing 4-0 win over old rivals Stourbridge on Saturday, writes Bryan Hale.
On a scorching afternoon at the DCS, Stourbridge had the better of the early exchanges with ex-Town front runner Chris Lait shooting over and then setting up Lewis Probert for a fierce effort which flew narrowly wide.
But it was Town who went in front in the 24th minute when Richard Gregory’s flick-on sent Taylor racing clear down the middle as the offside flag stayed down.
The ex-Worcester City striker admirably kept his cool as he skipped round the advancing keeper Matt Gould to slide the ball into the net from a narrow angle despite the best efforts of Joe Hull on the line to keep it out.
The Glassboys responded with the busy Lait twisting and turning on the edge of the penalty area to shoot inches wide of Niall Cooper’s right-hand post before Town doubled their lead on 37 minutes.
Again, Taylor was involved when he was up-ended by the Glassboy’s skipper Stuart Pierpoint and Gregory blasted the spot kick past Gould with the minimum of fuss.
And a minute before half-time, it was 3-0 when Taylor took advantage of a mix-up between Jack Duggan and Gould to nip between them and roll the ball into the empty net.
Town then carried on from where they left off after the restart with the impressive Taylor completing his hat-trick ten minutes into the second half.
In a delightful move down the left, Gregory released Kieren Westwood, whose low cross was finished at close range by Taylor, who was unmarked at the far post.
With both sides now making a number of changes, the flow of the game inevitably suffered, but Town continued to move the ball about sweetly and with Cooper confidently dealing with a couple of teasing crosses into the box, Town comfortably saw the game out to make it three wins on the bounce with no less than 15 goals hitting the back of the net along the way.
TOWN: Niall Cooper, Jordan Cullinane-Liburd, Kieren Westwood, Barry Fitzharris, Liam Francis, Emmit Delfouneso (Luke Fox 62), Simeon Tulloch (Logan Kelling 62), Mike Taylor (Frankie Baigent 73), Richard Gregory (Warren Brooks 56), Will Grocott, Jamie Sheldon (Charlie Evans 62).
