Thorpe hits four as Biggleswade romp to Kensington win

Biggleswade started the SSML Division One fixture on the front foot as both Tom Cookman and Rhys Thorpe saw half chances smothered. The opener arrived on 11 minutes as George Riley crossed into the box where Pat McCafferty got in on the blind side to head Biggleswade in front.

The second should have arrived within a minute as Thorpe rounded the keeper and with the angle too tight his ball to Cookman for an easy finish was poor. He made amends on 16 minutes as he latched onto a through ball from Ryan Inskip and finished from the the edge of the box.

It was 3-0 four minutes later. A great team goal started with Mark Franklin and five players later Cookman pulled the ball back for George Bailey to sidefoot home.

Kensington began to produce their best with Mo Ghailan the home side’s best player. Pulling the strings they started to cause FC problems and reduced the deficit on 28 minutes as Jabir Laraba squeezed his shot in on the angle.

Sam Wyer was then called to produce two saves, one of them outstanding – first he tipped a shot from Saeed Darankai away and then produced an acrobatic save as he tipped a shot destined for the top corner over the bar.

With the pressure building McCafferty cut out a pass and found Ryan Inskip who in turn sent Thorpe away to round the keeper and send Biggleswade in at half time 4-1 up.

The first 20 minutes of the second half saw both sides pushing and probing, Cookman failing to get a connection on a Thorpe pass and Thorpe himself screwing a left foot shot wide.

The game was put to bed on 70 minutes as Adam Hunt combined with Inskip and Gianni Battezzari to play Thorpe in and he duly completed his hatrick.

Not finished there Thorpe grabbed his fourth on 77 minutes as he fired home from eight yards with Inskip again the provider.

As the final few minutes ticked away Wyer was again called upon to produce a fine save but could do nothing with the best goal of the game as Didi Marques picked the ball up just inside the FC half on the left hand touchline and proceeded, in John Barnes fashion, to drive across the park leaving defenders in his wake before cutting the ball back into the far corner for an outstanding consolation goal.

With Harpenden visiting Saturday this was a massive win for FC and with Thorpe hitting top form they should go into the game with confidence high.