SAL Division 2 - 23rd September 2006 

Neal Collard bagged his first hat-trick for the Club as Carshalton recorded their second league victory away from home this season, defeating newly promoted Broomfield at the Hazelwood Sports Ground, Enfield.

Despite much of the early play in this well-contested encounter taking place in midfield, it was the visitors from Beddington Park that looked the more likely of the teams to open the scoring.  And, chances for Martin Vincent and Billy Andrews either side of the tenth minute gave warning to the hosts of what they might expect as the game wore on.  Two minutes later, Collard’s quick thinking almost caught the Broomfield keeper napping – the Cars midfielder’s speculative 30-yard effort narrowly missing the target.  However, it was to be Collard who broke the deadlock in the 37^th minute when from Andrew’s corner to the far post, he rose bravely to head Cars in front.

The second half was only two minutes old when Ross Sinclair in the Cars goal went one-on-one with the Broomfield centre-forward, producing a magnificent one handed stop to prevent what looked a certain equaliser.  With this scare behind them, Cars settled down to play some decent football, which saw chances arriving almost every time they attacked.  On 52 minutes it was the turn of the home keeper to impress when he made the save of the game to deny Paul Pearce – the Cars striker’s shot seemingly destined for the back of the net until the keeper’s full-length dive saw the ball turned around the near post and out for a corner.  Although the hosts appeared to be just about coping against the ever-increasing tide of Cars attacks, two goals in ten minutes around the hour mark wrapped-up the three points for the visitors.  Firstly, in the 55^th minute after the home side had failed to deal with a Cars corner, Vincent doubled the lead, volleying into the roof of the net after Badgie had acrobatically crossed the ball into the six-yard box.  And then, in the 65^th minute Collard reacted quicker than the defenders around him to get into the 18-yard box where he fired past the Broomfield keeper.  Cars didn’t let up and continued to press for more goals, which saw Badgie go close with a wonder strike from fully 35-yards, and Earl Davis closer still with a powerful header from yet another Andrews corner.  Finally, ten minutes from time Neal Collard burst into the host’s penalty box and shot wide of the keeper, adding a deserved fourth goal for Cars, and completing his first hat-trick for the Club.

Needless to say, as the long journey home by train got underway, Collard couldn’t stop telling everyone and anyone who would listen, of his prowess as the team’s top goal scorer.  However, once the half dozen double vodkas that had found their way into his celebratory pints of lager had kicked-in, he slept like a baby for the remainder of the trip.

Merton are the visitors to Beddington Park next Saturday, making the short trip from Morden for what will be Carshalton’s first home league fixture this season.

Beddington Hotspur