Burgess Hill Town 5, Harrow Borough 1: Keehan returns but it's Smith-Joseph who steals the show
Aaron Smith-Joseph grabbed a hat-trick whilst Lucas Rodrigues and an own goal also featured on the scoresheet.
Fan favourite Joe Keehan returned to the Hillians and went straight into the starting line-up. Meanwhile, dual-signed Whitehawk striker Lucas Rodrigues made his first start for the club.
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Hide AdDespite the Hillians having the majority of the possession early on in the game, a miskick from Cameron Greaves allowed Sahr Kabba to finish into an empty net.
The Hillians stayed strong and began to create some chances after 15 minutes. A deft flick from Rodrigues set up Lee Harding, who created an acute angle and fired his shot over.
Pierre Hazet had his own chance to score with the ball falling to his feet inside the box from a corner, only to hit his shot high of the goal.
The Hillians had their own stroke of luck when a James Richmond header from a corner deflected off Josh Webb into his own net.
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Hide AdLucas Rodrigues was a threat all evening, using his pace to get on the end of a long ball to beat the keeper and tap the ball home passed Williams.
Buoyed by their half-time lead, the Hillians raced out of the blocks in the second-half. A cross from Lee Harding was controlled by Pat Harding to Aaron Smith-Joseph who curled the ball beautifully into the bottom right.
Hill began to run rampant with Lucas Rodrigues unselfishly setting up Smith-Joseph to slide the ball underneath the keeper for his second of the evening.
Rodrigues proved to be a great weapon on the counter-attack, taking on the whole Harrow defence to win a free-kick on the edge of the box. The resulting Lee Harding free-kick was judged to have not crossed the line by referee Simon Finnigan.
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Hide AdKeeper Luke Williams did well to keep the score down, producing a good double save to deny Rodrigues a second and Smith-Joseph a hat-trick.
The evening couldn’t get any better for the Hillians as a Lee Harding through ball saw Rodrigues brought down inside the box by the onrushing Williams. Smith-Joseph stepped up to complete his hat-trick, despite the keeper getting a hand on it.
Hill were playing some of their best football all season as Smith-Joseph cut inside to tee up Rodrigues who’s lob curled just over the bar.
Sam Fisk whipped in a great cross for Tyrell Richardson-Brown but the latter was denied a goal thanks to a superb diving save from Luke Williams.
All in all, it was a welcome three points for Hill who are now away to Billericay on Saturday.