Garnett came away from Beggars Wood with three points and plenty of goals, but not after a nervous first half hour, saw Rutherford leading 1-0 from an early goal.

Having arrived late at the ground, Garnett were straight onto the pitch, and perhaps somewhat overconfident against the youthful looking Rutherford side. And, following Taff's trademark early foul Garnett were a goal down as they failed to react to the free kick, and the ball was smashed home from eight yards. Rutherford's glee suggested that they didn't score very often.

Garnett were left shocked by this, and struggled to get their game together, the tempo was lacking, along with composure and sharpness all over the park. That said, they soon established dominance, spending most of the game camped in Rutherford's half, although the youngsters did manage to put some decent moves together on the break.

The Rutherford keeper was having an excellent game, saving several one on ones from Dawson and Pollard, and dealing with corners superbly. However, after around a half hour of frustration, Garnett got the equaliser. Following a move down the left, the ever-willing Robinson swung the cross in, and POLLARD was able to get above his very small marker, to plant a firm header beyond the keeper.

This seemed to break Rutherford a little, as Garnett camped in their half. Number two soon followed, Holmes providing the slide rule pass, and POLLARD ran through to lift a fine finish over the keeper and into the net, for his second.

Half-time followed soon after. It was obvious from here on in that Garnett would stroll to victory from here; that said keeper Hepburn had to be alert when a long free-kick caught out the Garnett defence, who were unemployed for most of the afternoon, and he came out well to deal with the situation. From there Garnett never looked back. DAWSON was finally able to get on the score sheet when he slotted home from close range following good build up play on the left. Soon after he was replaced by John Stevens, and his quality was evident against the inexperienced and tiring Rutherford side. Hopkins was moved up front, and his pace and running were the last things the weakening Rutherford back four wanted. Stevens slid HOPKINS through, beating the offside trap, to slot calmly past the keeper.

Unfortunately for his side, the Rutherford keeper injured himself in trying to save Hopkins effort, and he had to be taken off, and with no subs left Rutherford were down to 10 men. It was now a matter of how many Garnett would score. OSSAWY was next to score, his shot from the edge of the area taking a deflection in as the defence failed to clear a corner. And following a mazy run from Corcoran, his cross was cleverly flicked into the net by POLLARD for his hat-trick.

The game by now had become scrappy, with all the Garnett players bombing forward, trying to score, as is perhaps inevitable in such a situation, and shots were taken when passes might have been the better option. HOPKINS slotted home from close range and from a Corcoran cross ROBINSON was able to get on the score sheet with a clever flicked header into the far corner.

And in the final few minutes HOPKINS made amends for a couple of glaring misses when he rounded the keeper superbly, barely touching the ball, a series of feints more than did for the keeper, and he finished calmly.

Manager Pollard was given the MOM award for his hat-trick and performance, Dave Robinson commenting that "he was like Beckham against Greece in that first half, driving us on, when we weren't playing well." The result means at the half way stage the Green and Black are well placed for a real title assault in the 2nd half of the season. Continued hard graft, as always will be the key.

Team: F.Hepburn, C.Ossawy 1, R.Turner, G.Hopkins 3, T.Webb, A.Alexander, D.Corcoran, B.Holmes, D.Robinson 1, C.Dawson 1 (J.Stevens), M.Pollard 3 (MOM).