MOUSEHOLE | HEAD TURNER

Century of goals for ace marksman

Hayden Turner couldn’t have picked a better scenario in which to break through the 100-goal milestone for Mousehole.

The talented front-man helped himself to a hat-trick within the opening half-an-hour of the Cornish outfit’s commanding 5-0 victory over fellow Pitching In Southern League Division One South play-off hopefuls, Bideford, on Tuesday evening.

It was a result which moved Mousehole up into fourth place in the table in what is their first-ever season at this level.

“I am incredibly proud to have scored 100 goals for the club,” Turner told us. “I have absolutely loved my time at the club so far and it’s a great feeling to know that I have been able to make a telling contribution during my time here.

“To reach the milestone with a hat-trick was the icing on the cake really. It was my first hat-trick of the season and couldn’t have come at a better time.

“This season has been a real learning curve for me and the team. We started really well, which helped us to find our feet and know that we can compete at this level.

“We had a little dip in form, but the fact that we are now up to fourth shows what we’re about and that we are serious about playing at this level.

“I am happy with my performances, there are always areas that you want to improve, but overall, I am in a good place and looking forward to the run-in.”

We asked Turner how the standard of Division One South has compared to what they were expecting going into the season.

“We weren’t really sure what to expect this season,” he admitted. “We knew that it would obviously be a step up in standard from the Western League and the quality of the teams across the whole of this division shows that.

“It’s a very high standard, there are no easy games and at no point do we turn up to a game expecting to win. You have to work extremely hard to earn every point in this League.

“People talk about the travelling that we have to face, but it doesn’t really affect me too much; I’ve done it before when playing externally at university. It sometimes takes its toll when we get back really late after an away game, but as players we knew that it was something we would have to face when we signed for a club with ambitions to move up the leagues, the higher the level, the more travelling that’s involved.

“We’ve worked hard to get ourselves into this position and the aim now is to cement a play-off place and see where it takes us. We’re a confident team and we know that on our day we can give any team in this League a competitive game.

“Personally, I’ve never played in a play-off game before, so it would be a great experience for me if we could get there.”

It’s just the one game over the Easter weekend for Mousehole as they host Exmouth Town on Monday.

IMAGE: Mousehole AFC

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