United 4
(Evans 11′, Morgan 34′, 48′, 59′)
Bath City 1
(Alves 19′)
United sealed a perfect easter for the yellow army, as Dylan Morgan’s hat-trick secured victory over bath city.
Reece Evans’ first goal for the club opened the scoring, however the lead didn’t last long, as Jordan Alves drew his side level shortly after. Morgan then intervened with an excellent hat-trick to seal another impressive win for The Gulls.
Manager Jimmy Ball freshened things up for United’s second match of the Easter weekend, with James Hamon, Louis Dennis and Morgan taking the places of Seb Stacey, Deon Moore and Callum Dolan, who all started the 3-0 triumph at Weston-super-Mare on Good Friday. Recent loan addition from AFC Bournemouth, Charlie Osborne, made his first appearance in Torquay’s matchday squad on the bench.
After a cagey start to proceedings, the deadlock was broken in the 11th minute.
Will Tizzard’s vision spotted Evans in space midway inside the Bath half, and after powering his way through a host of despairing challenges, a deflected shot on the edge of the 18-yard box saw the ball loop up over the dive of Bath custodian Charlie Binns and into the back of the net.
The lead lasted just eight minutes though.
A misplaced pace in midfield was pounced upon by Alves, and after taking aim from 20 yards out, the City man was delighted to see his low drive beat the dive of the Hamon to make it all-square.
To their credit, Ball’s men dusted themselves down and put the disappointment behind them, as they set about re-establishing their lead.
They were back in front on 34 minutes.
After a short corner found its way to Morgan on the corner of the penalty area, the Torquay winger sent the ball into the far corner of the net, evading attackers and defenders along the way, to chalk up his ninth goal of a productive season.
United remained ahead at the halfway point.
Three minutes after the change of ends, it was 3-1.
After Jay Foulston won a crucial aerial ball, his ball into the path of Morgan was inch-perfect, allowing the United No.11 to dash towards goal, cut inside, and curl a low shot home past Binn’s outstretched left hand.
Morgan’s hat-trick wasn’t far away either.
A ball down the right presented substitute Moore with the chance of lobbing the advancing Binns, but after unselfishly squaring the ball to his teammates inside the penalty area, Dan Hayfield’s blocked effort squirmed kindly to Dylan, who looked up before sending another delightful effort high into the roof of the net.
The men in yellow didn’t leave it there, with their aspirations for more goals well illustrated by another sub, Dolan, striking the post from 20 yards with seventeen minutes remaining.
Although Ball’s side created a number of other good openings before the final whistle, that was to be the end of the scoring, as United moved up to third in the table, with just three games left to play.
UNITED: 1. James Hamon, 3. Jay Foulston (14. Matt Carson, 76′), 4. Jordan Dyer, 5. Sam Dreyer, 7. Louis Dennis (10. Callum Dolan, 69′), 11. Dylan Morgan (27. Matt Jay 64′), 18. Matt Worthington (c), 20. Dan Hayfield, 22. Reece Evans (19. Deon Moore, 56′), 24. Sonny Blu Lo-Everton, 28. Will Tizzard (23. Charlie Osborne, 56′).
SUBS NOT USED: 8. Jordan Young, 16. Ed Palmer.
Yellow Card: Morgan 30′
BATH CITY : 24. Charlie Binns, 2. Joe Raynes, 3. Danny Greenslade, 4. Ollie Tomlinson, 6. Kieran Parselle (c), 7. Jordan Alves (14. Alex Fisher, 71′), 8. Will Jenkins Davies (34. Reubin Sheppard, 5′), 9. Scott Wilson, 23. Owen Windsoe, 27. Jaiden Putmand, 48. Moses Laqeretabua.
SUBS NOT USED: 1. Harvey Wiles-Richards, 15. Louis Sweeten, 21. Owen Pritchard, 22. Matt Bowman, 37. Moses Alexander-Walker.
Yellow Card: Parselle 28′, Sheppard 52′
Attendance: 4,430 (205 away)
