A first-ever senior hat-trick came about in a rather unconventional way for Joni Vukaj.
The Enfield FC front-man converted three penalties in Saturday’s impressive 4-0 victory over play-off hopefuls, Thame United.
“What a crazy way to get my first senior hat-trick,” he said with a smile. “It isn’t something that you see very often, but I’m happy however the goals come about and hopefully there are more to come.
“As a team, we were great on Saturday; we switched up how we played and went back to front a little quicker, breaking with real pace.
“We created loads of good opportunities for ourselves and got into positions to make things happen, limiting Thame to very little, to be honest.
“Defensively every player did their part and worked hard for a very deserved clean sheet and a good three points.
“I’m looking forward to the run in we’ve got a lot of hard work to get through and some huge games coming up, but I’m confident if we keep playing the way we have over the last eight or so weeks, we’ll get the results we need to stay up.
“The League has been a strange one this year. I don’t think any results are guaranteed, you need to work hard for every result.
“It’s also been a strange season for us as a team. I don’t think our position in the table is very reflective of how we’ve played majority of the year. We’ve had a lot of games where we’ve dominated and been the better team, had the better chances, limited teams to very little, but we just haven’t been able to take our chances and have been punished.
“I don’t think a few decisions have gone our way this season as well, so Saturday was about time luck started falling our way!
“The aim for the remainder of the season is pretty simple; to finish out of the bottom four and stay up.
“We’ve been able to strengthen the group recently and this combined with how we’ve been playing should stand us in good stead. Saturday’s result against opponents who are just outside of the top five will only add to the belief that we have.
“On a personal level, I’ve been having a good goalscoring year, and I’ll be trying to hit the 20-goal mark this year, so hopefully a few more penalties will come my way between now and the end of the season!”
We’re keen to find out about more hat-trick of penalties exploits in the Southern League over the years.
For Enfield, they are in Friday night action this week as they play host to high-flying Hitchin Town.
IMAGE: Enfield FC
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