A super performance brought a super win and kept City top of the table going into Christmas Day.

At a very cold and blustery Holm Park, a Zack Jobe hat-trick and a goal from Harry Maher secured the points for City, with the two goals for the hosts both coming when the game was already really out of their reach.

The early stages were fairly even but Sports carved out a couple of opportunities with a long range effort from Beau Cook-Bartholomew fired well wide after he’d led a break from deep inside his own half and Bailey Catherick seeing his similar distance strike well fielded at head height by returning City keeper Tom Benham.

However it was City that opened the scoring when, in the twenty-third minute, Luka Radojevic created a goal from nothing. Pinching the ball off an opponent from inside his own half, he swept on down the left-wing before just over-running it. As a covering defender dawdled for just a moment, Radojevic ran round him retrieved the ball and carried on into the box. Sports keeper Archie Simmons tried to close him down, but he was left floundering as Radojevic left him stranded and got to the by-line. Looking up, he squared the ball perfectly for the oncoming Jobe and his first touch was perfect before, keeping his composure, he steadied himself and slotted the ball firmly home past the retreating Simmons for the first goal of the game as he desperately, but vainly tried to get back to attempt a save.  

It was almost two a couple of minutes later when Luke Illsley, playing in midfield this week, pounced on a loose pass and surged forward only to see his thumped effort fly just wide of the upright. Sports tried to respond with an attacking free-kick hoisted in by Catherick, but Benham was watchful as the winds swirled around and he made a comfortable take. He wasn’t required shortly after though when Cook-Bartholomew’s thirty-yarder cleared the protective netting behind the goal and disappeared into the fields behind the stand.

City were moving the ball around nicely and Sports were just looking a little uncertain at the back and City almost capitalised on thirty-seven when a lovely diagonal ball from Maher sliced the defence apart and Jake McCarthy chased through before conjuring up an excellent first-time cross that Jobe, running in, speared just wide of the angle.

Most of the attacking pressure was coming from City and Illsley, in his more advanced position than normal, started and almost finished another clever City move that saw him volley over the Sports bar.

Eventually the pressure told though and City notched their second and this one was all down to Jobe’s perseverance and persistence. Chasing a lost cause down the right, he pestered and harassed a defender into conceding the ball before taking it on and firing it in from a tight angle for his and City’s second.

That goal came a minute before the break and put a realistic score-line on the game as Sports, one of the in-form sides in the league currently, looked a little out of sorts and placated and City deservedly went into the break with a two goal advantage.

The hosts returned for the second-half and immediately looked a lot more determined and spirited but they were quickly rocked by City’s third just two minutes after the restart and it was yet another impressive move that the hosts  just couldn’t counter. McCarthy moved down the left, laid the ball across for Rob Lawrence, one-touch onto Jobe and another one-touch from him then found Maher in space and he coolly slammed the ball home past the flailing Simmons for 3-0.

City were looking good for their lead but to their credit, Sports responded well to that fresh setback. Benham made a straightforward save from Simon Gyimaha before Sports then headed well over the bar from a corner. Substitute George Acland – on at the break for Sports, then saw his shot deflected out for a corner from which City were indebted to Benham with a superb one-handed claw back save after Catherick’s ball in caught the wind and almost flew straight into the net.

Jahmal Hector-Ingram’s well crafted left-sided cross was then grabbed by Benham as Acland came charging in at pace just a split second too late to turn the ball home before another Catherick corner again caught in the wind but was a little overhit and just cleared City’s far post as a host of players from both sides tangled to try to reach it.

A wind-assisted home free-kick then whistled through the box with Benham helping it on its way for an unsuccessful corner after which the Sports impetus began to wain and City started to take control. They were retaining possession really well but after an extended period of keep ball, they were caught cold when the ball was inadvertently lost and out of nowhere Joe Skinner pounced before chipping the ball past Benham and into the empty net for a rather mutely received 3-1.

For a moment you did wonder if the hosts were going to stage some sort of fight back, but City soon seized back the initiative. Jobe battled to try and find some space before seeing his shot from just inside the box well blocked but just minutes later he sealed the game and his hat-trick by putting City 4-1 ahead. A cracking diagonal ball from Illsley, forward and into acres of space, found McCarthy marauding down the left again and he pulled back a gem of a cross from the byline for Jobe to get in front of a defender and slam the ball home past Simmons for his third and City’s fourth.

Benham then denied Acland with a smart close-range block but went down injured soon after and his return after a long while out was cruelly cut short. There was still around fifteen minutes plus stoppages to play as the unfortunate keeper was forced to leave the field with Illsley donning the blue shirt and gloves to take over in goal.

It is to City’s great credit from there that Illsley was barely forced to touch the ball in anger for almost the whole of the rest of the game. His team controlled and dominated the possession in that last period with Lawrence purring around controlling things like an orchestral conductor – minus the batten!

Well into stoppage time, a City break down the left saw Simmons dashing well out of his area but get nowhere near the ball and Alfie Cragg almost lobbed the ball home from very far out and wide left, but the ball just dropped short and started to drift from goal.

With ninety-seven minutes on the watch, Sports got the ball into the City box and after a bit of a mini sort of scramble, Illsley’s clean sheet was ruined when Acland cleverly and cheekily seemed to back heel the ball home from a couple of yards out to make the final score 4-2.

So a victory for City and it is they who head into Christmas Day top of the tree!

Final score: Canterbury City 4 Sheppey Sports 2.