Mark Wane clips in the first of his four gaol. Picture courtesy of Neil Mitchell
KIRKHAM fired their way back into the title race with their best ever victory recorded at Kellamergh Park on Saturday, as visitors
Castleton Gabriels were simply torn apart in a ruthless display of clinical finishing.
With midfield ace Ged Smith supplying most of the ammunition up front early on with a series of inswinging crosses and corners, 15-goal striker Mark Wane made hay as the sun shone brightly on Kirkham's goalscoring exploits.
He grabbed himself a first-half hat-trick inside 26 minutes and then proceeded to volley in a fourth just after half-time as Kirkham rallied to
manager Mick Fuller's interval war-cry.
He said: "I told the lads that we are now playing catch up to New Mills in the league and that if we want to make them sweat they had to try to make the goal difference work for us today and l'm pleased to say they did just
that."
Indeed, Kirkham's second-half show bettered their first with five goals right out of the top drawer, after Wane had smashed in his fourth after 49 minutes from another telling cross from Smith at the far post, Micky Horsfall, restored to the starting line-up after a couple of games on the sidelines went on one of his famous mazy runs, turned the visitors defence inside out and promptly thrashed in his third of the season in the 54th minute.
Smith, who had been a constant thorn in Castleton's side all afternoon grabbed himself a share of the limelight too on 74 minutes smashing home an unstoppable free-kick from 25 yards to make it six that had Gabriels keeper
Mark Canning clutching at thin air.
advertisement
Horsfall made it seven eight minutes from time when he fired home through a ruck of legs off the edge of the box, and when defender Tony Keefe fired home a low shot at the near post on the whistle after good work from James Sheppard, on as an early first-half sub for new striker Matt Shaw who pulled a hamstring, Kirkham's march into second place in the promotion race was
complete.
Boss Fuller added later: "I told them to do a professional job and that's just what they have done.
Mark Wane clips in the first of his four gaol. Picture courtesy of Neil Mitchell
"I'm sure leaders New Mills are now looking over
their shoulders after a performance like this."
Twelve points behind the Derbyshire side, Kirkham have games in hand and when the two clash at Kellamergh Park on March 15 it could well be a title decider.
"That's the way we'd like to think of it but it's still early days for us," added Fuller.
"So long as we keep plugging away like we did today then the chase is on."
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
Submit your event for free. Click 
Print
Email this
Comment
