A winning start to the New Year

A Jordan Thomas hat-trick helped Newark Town start their new year in style with a comprehensive 5-1 victory over Bentley Colliery on Saturday.
The win sees the Blues maintain their fourth place position in the league, as they look to maintain the pressure on the sides around them.
With the luxury of a near full strength squad to choose from, the Blues began positively, Thomas drawing an excellent diving save from goalkeeper Mike Teale with a 25 yard effort.
Newark opened the scoring in the 11th minute, after an intricate one-two between Ngoni Dongo and Thomas saw the former brought down in the penalty area, with Thomas converting the kick.
The Blues continued to create chances, with Arron Martin going close to extending their advantage midway through the half, but he lacked composure with the finish following a strong run.
Bentley hadn’t won since August, and their barren run looked unlikely to change when Sam Wilford played a through ball to Thomas, who kept his cool before calmly slotting the effort into the corner with 31 minutes played.
Martin had an effort chalked off for offside, and Thomas nearly completed a first-half treble with a shot that went narrowly wide of the post, but Newark maintained their healthy advantage going into the break.
Dom Swingler missed a golden opportunity to extend their lead moments after the break when he was played through on goal, but his heavy touch allowed the keeper to block the shot.
He made up for the miss in the 54th minute, when he produced an inch-perfect cross for Wilford to run in and score with a thumping header.
Town’s dominance continued, and Thomas completed his hat-trick following more outstanding work by Wilford who beat two players with an excellent driving run, before unselfishly crossing to Thomas to tap in his third on 68 minutes.
Bentley had struggled to create chances throughout the match, but they pulled a goal back when a through ball opened up the defence to give Dan Read a clear sight of goal.
Craig Rhodes got a hand to the shot, but it wasn’t enough as the ball rolled into the bottom corner to give their opponents a consolation goal.
Substitute James Munson rounded off the victory in emphatic style ten minutes from time with an audacious dink over the goalkeeper after he had been played clear of the defence.
Newark will be hopeful of securing another three points when they travel to bottom-of-the-table Welbeck on Saturday.

Report by Rick Lane