Gazette Sport
Paterson bags a hat-trick as 'Stoke run riot against lowly Sutton and Epsom
1:00pm Monday 20th February 2012
ASHLEY Paterson scored a hat-trick as Basingstoke RFC overran lowly Sutton and Epsom to get their London One South promotion challenge back on track.
Full-back Paterson touched down three times, while winger Gareth Kelly made it 20 tries for the season by scoring twice.
Neil Posthumus, Freddie Gleadowe and Matt Horne also notched tries as ’Stoke beat bottom of the table Sutton 48-0.
The game was Basingstoke’s first since they lost by a single point away at title contenders Chichester – and head coach James Croker was pleased by the way his side bounced back from that disappointment.
“We need to build on this performance for our run in to the end of the season,” he said. “To score eight tries in any game is good and it is always nice to keep a clean sheet.”
It took Basingstoke 20 minutes to open the scoring but they found their form after this to lead 24-0 at half-time, with the four-try bonus point in the bag, while another quartet of tries followed after the break.
“We were inaccurate with our play in the first 15 minutes,” Croker said.
“This led to mistakes and we were very flat in our alignment, which did not help matters. Although we scored some late tries, we started to force proceedings, which led to missed opportunities.
“In between those two periods we did a thoroughly professional job in some poor conditions at times.”
’Stoke remain fourth in the table but are now just seven points off top spot, which is now held by Guernsey after long-time leaders Chichester were upset by Hove.
See The Monday Gazette for a full report.