Football: Patience hat-trick sees Laxey dispatch St John's

Visitors move up to sixth with victory

A Brody Patience hat-trick helped Laxey on their way to a comprehensive 4-0 victory over St John's United at Mullen-e-Cloie in the Canada Life Men's Premier League last night (21 November).

The visitors found themselves 2-0 up come the half-time break as Patience opened the scoring with a low-left footed drive in at the near post after some smart work from Ethan Hawley.

As Laxey began to dominate proceedings, Patience was then on target again this time with a deft curling free-kick from the edge of the box which nestled in the bottom corner.

Approaching half-time, St John's nearly got a spectacular goal back as Dean Leece unleashed a shot from just inside the Laxey half towards goal which clattered off the Laxey crossbar with Glenn Walker beaten.

Into the second period and Laxey returned to controlling the tempo of the contest, adding a third when a wayward St John's pass back towards their own goal was picked up by Ben Wosser who, charging forward, skipped past his marker on the edge of the box before firing a low effort across goal and into the net.

Shortly after, the fourth goal of the evening arrived with Patience bagging his hat-trick as his 25-yard strike after cutting in from the right sailed into the far bottom corner with the help of a small deflection.

By this point the physicality of the game had increased whilst St John's had been making efforts to force their way back into contention and a blip for Laxey saw them reduced to ten men with Aaron Bradley receiving a straight red card for a robust challenge in the St John's half.

The visitors even found themselves down to nine for a brief period with midfielder Ryan Gartland sin-binned whilst St John's would also end up with a man in the sin-bin in the closing stages with Cian Brock dismissed.

Victory for Laxey sees them leapfrog Rushen United into sixth in the table on 13 points, ahead of the Southern side on goal difference.

St John's United remain eighth in the table a short distance behind on ten points.