Lowestoft Town 0, Gorleston 5GORLESTON moved to second spot on goal difference in Division 3 North East of the NE14 East Men's League with a crushing derby defeat of local rivals Lowestoft.

Lowestoft Town 0, Gorleston 5

GORLESTON moved to second spot on goal difference in Division 3 North East of the NE14 East Men's League with a crushing derby defeat of local rivals Lowestoft. Malcolm Berry scored a hat-trick.

Although playing without skipper Kevin MacDonald (unwell) and Dale Kemp (on three months' work transfer to Aberdeen), Gorleston welcomed the return of last season's power-house Jason Austin midfield.

Almost from the start they took the game to their hosts with a pace and skill so reminiscent of last year's promotion campaign.

For the first 15 minutes Lowestoft held firm, but then came a beautifully-worked goal.

A midfield cross was intercepted and before the home defence could recover a swift counter saw Russ Crawford pull the keeper off his line and cross for Malcolm Berry to fire into an empty net.

Lowestoft regrouped and held their line until half-time but their forwards were getting nowhere against Gorleston's defence in which Andrew Lilly Nick Mobbs Jamie Higginbotham and Peter Jones were also outstanding.

Within two minutes of the restart Gorleston scored again and the result was just about settled.

This time it was Mark Vaudin who joined in the move and flat-footed several defenders before crossing for Monty Raymond to fire home his first league goal for the club.

Unlike last week against UEA, Gorleston were in no mood to ease up and 10 minutes later Berry scored his second before completing a memorable hat-trick a quarter hour from the end.

Lowestoft were still trying to find their game but to no avail - the few times their forwards got into the D Barney King coolly covered his line and snuffed out any danger.

This left the final word to Jamie Higginbotham who three minutes from the end dragged a trademark short-corner bullet into the roof of the net to send the partisan Gorleston spectators and players home very happy.

Next, the visitors to Cliff Park are Harleston Magpies III, currenlty fourth in the table and also undefeated. Push-back is at 2.30pm.

The result could be a difficult to forecast as Gorleston will have one or two enforced absences from their squad.