PIERS Walton scored a first-half hat-trick as Malvern Town romped to a remarkable 7-3 victory against Brixham AFC in a 10-goal thriller.
Walton netted a 24-minute treble after Joe Tumelty put the Hillsiders ahead while Yuri Quintas put Malvern into a five-goal lead at the break at the HDAnywhere Community Stadium.
A brace from James Moxon saw Brixham reduce the deficit only for late goals from Quintas and Matthew MacDonald to put the seal on an emphatic victory which came either side of James De Selincourt’s consolation strike.
The result means Malvern sit second in the Southern League Division One South table, 11 points behind leaders Frome Town with a game in hand.
Malvern had a player sent off before kick-off as Ryan Brunt clashed with Brixham’s Liam Corbett in the tunnel which led to the striker receiving a red card.
League rules allowed Malvern to replace Brunt in their starting line-up with a named substitute which saw Walton start the game from the off.
However, this change would restrict the Hillsiders to a total of four substitutes while the incident also caused a delay to the kick-off.
Once play began, Malvern broke the deadlock after just nine minutes when Tumelty fired a free-kick from the edge of the penalty area into the top right corner of the goal.
And the home side doubled their lead two minutes later as Walton tapped in from close range after Quintas played a ball across the face of goal.
Walton struck again on 27 minutes when Tumelty swept a pass into the path of the striker who grabbed his second of the game after more good work from Quintas.
And Walton completed his hat-trick on 35 minutes with a sweeping finish from Ben Baxter’s pass.
Malvern scored a fifth goal on the stroke of half time as Quintas produced an emphatic finish when one-on-one with the Brixham goalkeeper.
However, Brixham reduced the deficit five minutes after half time when Moxon found the net when left unmarked in the box.
And Moxon further reduced the deficit on 74 minutes when he pounced on Josh Bishop’s hesitancy to score his second of the game.
A glut of late goals followed as Quintas scored his second of the game 10 minutes from time when he beat the Brixham goalkeeper in a foot race and finished into an empty net.
Brixham substitute De Selincourt scored a third goal for the visitors two minutes later after Malvern failed to deal with a ball in-behind the defence.
However, the Hillsiders completed the scoring on 87 minutes when MacDonald slammed a loose ball into the net from the edge of the penalty area.
There was still time for more drama at the death as Brixham goalscorer Moxon saw red before the final whistle.
Malvern are next in action against Willand Rovers on Wednesday, February 4 with kick-off at 7.45pm at the Stan Robinson Stadium.
