Evesham II 5, West Bromwich 1.

ANDY Mabbett scored a hat-trick as Evesham Hockey Club seconds extended their current winning streak to four and maintain top spot in the Ener-G West Midlands Division One.

Evesham got off to a poor start, with West Bromwich, who only had one win so far this season and were playing the long-ball game.

The visitors were hoping their pace up-front could beat the Evesham defensive trio of captain Frank Lake, Mark Dufty and Sam Thomson.

It wasn’t long before the visitors were able to get around the back of the defence and open the scoring thanks to Evesham keeper Rory Ewers deflecting a cross into his own goal.

This set-back seemed to spark the home team into life, though, and it wasn’t long before Mabbett brought them level, thanks to impressive build-up play between Chris Gardner and Mark Saddler on the right-hand side.

Soon Evesham’s dominance began to tell and, before half-time, Mabbett scored his second to give the home team the advantage at the break.

For the last three weeks Evesham have been adopting a 3-5-2 formation, with the midfield trio of Rob Leighton, Matt Grumball and Pat Gibbs controlling the game from the centre of the park.

As the second-half began, this structure helped push West Bromwich into their own half, with all attempts to break out thwarted.

The increased pressure on the visitors soon resulted in a third for Evesham, as Gibbs scored a tremendous solo effort.

John Vickery, brought on to replace Steve Miller on the left-wing, grabbed Evesham’s fourth. The victory was sealed with aplomb when the impressive Mabbett scored his hat-trick goal with time to spare.

As the game drew to a close, Evesham relaxed and allowed the visitors to play the ball around more, but they were unable to score again.