Harleston 5 Bishop's Stortford 2

Premier A

Harleston 5 Bishop's Stortford 2

A vintage performance from Andy Hipwell inspired the Harleston Magpies to victory over a well-organised Bishop's Stortford team.

Hipwell opened the scoring with a drag flick from a short corner before making it 2-0 after a strong run was finished with a superb strike in the top right hand corner.

Ten minutes later he went on to complete a first half hat trick with a deflection from a Richard Gill free hit.

Iain Martin later pulled off a superb diving save to keep the lead at 3-0 going in to half time.

Stortford came out strongly in the second half and pulled one back through a corner, when the left post man was unlucky to deflect the shot into his own net past veteran keeper Martin.

In an evenly contested second half, Magpies restored their lead with an early contender for goal of the season. James Wheeler started the move inside the home side's half, initiating a sequence of slick balls to cut open the Stortford defence. James Fanger then squared the ball for Wheeler to finish in style.

Moments later Carl Sitch had a chance to continue his goal scoring form but missed with the goal at his mercy.

A plucky Stortford team then struck back midway through the second half from a deflected short corner. however, Magpies weren't finished and Neil Toulson ran 30 yards, beating the Stortford defender, before squaring the ball to Hipwell.

Hipwell then waltzed past two Stortford defenders, rounded the keeper and slotted the ball home for his fourth of the game.

This ensured a comfortable 5-2 win which keeps Harleston top-of-the-table with four wins from four games.