Shenley travelled to Pitstone on a blustery Sunday afternoon looking for their eighth league win of the season.

Meanwhile, Pitstone & Ivinghoe were looking for their second win in a week after beating ten-man Heelands 3-2 on Thursday. They were in fifth place, knowing that a win could lift them to fourth.

Team News
The Phantoms were without eight players, namely goalkeeper Aly Khimani, defender Zakir Kassam, midfielders Morgan Pugh, Tyler Johnston and Kyle Armstrong, along with forwards Connor Dempsey, Freddie Rogers and Mohammed Edris

Manager Ian Orr made three changes to the starting XI, with Ben Lynch, Joel Smith and Myron Auko all coming back into the side.

Matthew Brown and Ollie Tanners were the substitutes.

First Half
Shenley started the game brightly, pressing Pitstone high up the pitch as they tried to play out from the back. This worked as just four minutes in, Joel Smith latched onto a wayward pass and slotted the ball into the bottom corner to give the Phantoms an early 1-0 lead.

On 13 minutes, a long kick from Damon Smith was flicked on by the head of Tom Beevor, playing Ben Lynch through on goal. Ben duly finished into the bottom corner to double Shenley's lead.

Pitstone's keeper picked up an injury and was replaced after a stoppage in play.

Soon after, Tom Beevor headed in a cross by left-back Adam Gillespie to make it 3-0 to Shenley.

Pitstone were struggling to get on the ball. Their first shot on target came with a header from a free-kick, but it lacked the power to beat keeper Damon Smith.

With eight minutes until half-time, Tom Beevor chested down a looping ball over the top by Jack Medley before finishing it off for his second goal.

Seven minutes later, Ben Lynch kept the ball in play on the byline. He played the ball across the six-yard box to Tom Beevor, who scored in the empty net to complete his hat-trick.

The Phantoms' grabbed a sixth goal in added time when Ben Lynch flicked on a Finley Bodimeade corner. The ball bounced off three Pitstone defenders before going into the back of the net.

At half-time, Shenley were leading Pitstone 6-0.

Second Half
There were no half-time substitutions.

Ten minutes in, Pitstone's striker was through on goal and finished to decrease the deficit from 6 goals to 5. Matthew Brown then came on for Mitchell Brook at centre-back.

With the game already won, the second half was played out at a much slower pace than the first. Goalscorer Joel Smith came off for Ollie Tanner.

A fast break saw Tom Beevor run past several players until he was through on goal, but he was unable to finish or find Ollie Tanner, who had made a lung-bursting run to the back post.

Myron Auko dribbled past several players through on goal, but the ball was cleared away after he tried to square it to a teammate.

With eight minutes left, Mitchell Brook came back on for Kian Robinson. The wind then blew a Pitstone corner into the goal, cueing half-hearted cheers from the Pitstone fans.

At full time, Shenley moved one point off second place with a convincing 6-2 win over Pitstone & Ivinghoe.

Analysis
After not scoring in the first half in the previous five league matches, it was a welcome surprise to be 6-0 up at half-time.

The fast start and high press took Pitstone by surprise. The Phantoms had a lot of energy in the midfield, too much for Pitstone to handle.

It was disappointing to not see the energy carried over to the second half, but it didn't matter since the game was effectively over midway through in the first half.

Man of the Match
Congratulations to Myron Auko who won Man of the Match today for his midfield performance today.

Manager Ian Orr commented: "Myron Auko deserves it for me because he had such a big influence on our midfield and how we played in the first half. Although Tom Beevor deserves a mention and gets really close for the hat-trick, I think the midfield was where we won the game today, so I really think it needs to go to one of the midfield three. For me, Myron just edges it."

"Absolutely fantastic" - Reaction
Manager Ian Orr: "Great win today but also a great performance. I thought the whole team played well for large periods of the game so it was great to watch. I had the other team manager, the referee, and even some of the other players come up to me after the game to tell me how impressed they were with the football we played today. Some great passing and moves during the game and we could easily have scored a few more. It was great to watch with really good performances throughout the whole team. A great team performance overall.

"Myron Auko, Jack Medley and Finley Bodimeade were outstanding today and created a lot of chances. Tom Beevor, Rohan Sawjani, Adam Gillespie and Ben Lynch were also really good, particularly in the first half. I thought Finley Bodimeade took up some really good positions all of the time and linked up really well, and Jack Medley was really good at winning the ball and then played some great passes."

Hat-trick scorer Tom Beevor: "Going into today's game, I knew we could dominate and we did that superbly in the first half. Some of the football was amongst the best I’ve seen us play. The second half wasn’t quite as good due to us dropping the intensity levels, but it was still a great game and it was good for me to get the goals and assist."

Midfielder Jack Medley: "We dominated in the first half and looked absolutely fantastic. The second half was more difficult but we still did more than enough for the 3 points."

Statistics

• Tom Beevor is the third player to score a hat-trick for the Phantoms' this season, along with Ben Lynch and Joel Smith
• Tom is now also Shenley's second-highest goalscorer this season with 10 goals
• Myron Auko won his first Man of the Match award in his third appearance

What's next?
These two sides will play each other again next weekend, with the Phantoms back on home soil.

On Wednesday evening, Pitstone will face Deanshanger away from home.

On behalf of the team, I’d like to express my thanks to Richard Medley for being the linesman, Rob Gillespie for taking the videos and all the 19 fans who travelled to support the Phantoms. Your support is very much appreciated.