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| Saturday 10 April 2004 Heath Pilgrims II 0 East Court FC 5 East Court FC moved a step closer to promotion with a convincing 5-0 win over Heath Pilgrims 2nds on Saturday. Court got off to the perfect start when Billy Denyer scored a cracking header off a pin point cross from winger Andrew Wright. Within a matter of minutes, the score moved to 2-0 when Ross Kelly dispossessed a Pilgrim defender to set up Denyer, who slotted the ball home for his second of the afternoon. Denyer completed his hat-trick soon after when he was the first to react to a goal mouth scramble from a corner, firing home his 26th goal of the season. East Court started the second half in dominating fashion, with the defence of Nick Palmer, Dan Medcalf and Martyn Bishop rarely troubled by the Pilgrim attack, whilst James Salter and Simon Nickols controlled the game through midfield. Chris Butler came on for the injured Palmer, and had a hand in the fourth goal when Lee Champion was first to his long throw and slotted the ball into the net from an acute angle. The game then got heated, with Bishop and Kelly both picking up bookings for dissent and a late challenge respectively. Both teams were reduced to ten men shortly after when Butler was shown a straight red for a late tackle and the referee showed the same card to the Heath Pilgrim player for retaliation. Nick Clarkson-Tooze came on for Wright as Court adapted to the loss of Butler and the score soon moved to five when Bishop scored direct from a corner. Paul Bishop was then introduced to the game with ten minutes to go, and immediately made an impact after linking up with Carl Buckler on the left, cutting inside and seeing his blistering strike go narrowly wide. The result saw East Court keep their sixth clean sheet in their last eight games, with keeper Andrew Mackie having not a save to make for the third consecutive match. Team: A.Mackie, A.Wright (N.Clarkson-Tooze), C.Buckler, M.Bishop, D.Medcalf, N.Palmer (C.Butler), S.Nickols, B.Denyer, R.Kelly (P.Bishop), L.Champion, J.Salter |