A Hat-trick welcome tomorrow

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Three hat-tricks, good. Four hat-tricks, better.

My apologies to ALH Gisborne Thistle striker Jimmy Somerton. In my addled arrogance, I trusted my memory in its recall of two hat-tricks before last Saturday’s effort in a 5-3 loss to Palmerston North United at Childers Road Reserve.

I’d forgotten the hat-trick he scored in the 4-1 home win against Taradale on July 16, to go with the three-goal bags he’d grabbed in a 7-6 away win against Napier City Rovers Reserves on April 22 and a 4-3 away loss to Taradale on May 27.

His four hat-tricks make up just over half of the goals he’s scored this season — 20 in the Central Federation League and one in the single Chatham Cup game Thistle played this year.

I can’t find the golden-boot tallies for the leagues on the Central Football website — they’re probably there, hidden in plain sight —but if anyone in the Central Federation League has a better goalscoring record than Somerton this year, I’d be impressed. And this for a team at the foot of the table.

He’s scored in all but two of their 13 league games so far.

So it’s good that Somerton is expected to be fit for tomorrow’s game against Palmerston North United at Memorial Park in Palmerston North. He had physio on his back at halftime on Saturday, and it looked to have done the trick when in the second half he scored his third goal.

This week, too, Thistle will have the benefit of Oska Smith’s return to the squad.

He has had a good week playing for Gisborne Boys’ High School at the Rex Dawkins Tournament in Napier, where they finished fourth. He scored a hat-trick of his own in a 4-0 victory over Kapiti College.

Smith has been away from the Thistle scene for a few weeks while he competed for New Zealand in surf lifesaving beach sprints in Australia.

The Jags will welcome his infusion of blistering pace.

However, they will miss Ryan Noon — serving an automatic one-week suspension after his two yellow-card offences added up to red — and Nick Land, who is coaching an Ilminster Intermediate team for a tournament.

Noon has quickly made himself an invaluable part of the Thistle defence alongside Finn McAuley, while Land was back to his honest-to-goodness best in midfield and in defence.

Thistle coach Garrett Blair is considering using Cullen Spawforth — usually a midfielder with a telling pass – at centreback.

Spawforth returns from a one-week suspension for double-yellow offences, and Blair reckons he’s a good fit for the opening at the back.

“Cullen has defensive nous,” Blair said.

“He can fill that gap at the back and we can retain a large part of last week’s midfield, where I thought we did reasonably well.

“We will have a few schoolboys in the squad, which is normal for a Gisborne team, and they will have benefited from their tournament play this week.”

Blair said he thought Thistle — with their pace out wide and up front — presented a “massive threat” through Campbell Hall, Somerton and Smith.

“If we can keep it tight at the back and hit them on the counter, we can have a bit of success. It’s a David-versus-Goliath match. I just hope the boys can get up for it.”