Pope double the saviour for Church against Fleet Town

Sydenhams Premier: Christchurch FC 4-0 Fleet Town

CHRISTCHURCH FC continued their fine form with a convincing 4-0 victory over Fleet Town.

Ash Pope scored twice in the first half for the hosts, and Matt Neale and Grant Cormack rounded off the scoring in the second period.

Christchurch took the lead on six minutes when Max Wilcock’s effort smashed the bar and fell to Pope who had an easy tap-in. Their lead was doubled 10 minutes later as Fleet failed to clear the ball inside their own box.

Pope was on hand again to put the ball in the back of the net as Christchurch looked to be in the driving seat. Church had several chances to further extend their advantage with Wilcock and Ron Frost coming close, but they went into the break at 2-0.

In the second half, Christchurch continued to show their dominance as they looked to wrap up the game.

Pope narrowly pushed a shot wide which denied him a hat-trick, but it was Neale who was next on the scoresheet as he converted one-on-one against Fleet keeper Aiden Upward. Christchurch sealed the 4-0 victory in added time when Cormack’s glancing header nestled in the net.

The victory puts Church up to fifth, but with five games in hand over league-leaders Alresford Town, the side are still in touching distance of the title.

Christchurch manager Ollie Cherrett told the A&T: “It was a very dominant display from us. I thought we were brilliant, and to score four goals and more importantly keep another clean sheet was very pleasing.

“The lads have worked so hard to better our points total from last season with 16 games still to play.”

Christchurch travel to fourth-placed Lymington Town tomorrow in the Sydenhams Premier division.