Cup Finalists Stokesley travelled to Kneeton Park looking to leapfrog their opponents with a win, while Kneeton needed the points to hold onto their fifth place spot.

Stokesley had a couple of changes to the team that saw them beat Brompton in the cup semi-final the week before with the Fawce away on a 'guilt' trip (NOTE: tell the wife about going to Euro 2004 before booking it next time Neil) and Dave Grainge and Martin 'one touch, one goal' Corner absent, which saw Craig Hutton rewarded for netting in the previous game by being pulled back into his favorite position of sweeper, Left Pegger moving back to left wing and Largie brought in up front.

Captain Chinola lost the toss and Kneeton decided to kick up the slope first half. Stokesley applied the early pressure and after 10 minutes were rewarded when a nicely flighted free kick from the left by Chinola was met by the stooping Bushbishlak to head past the keeper. A couple of minutes later, Nightsy, while challenging for the ball from a Kneeton goal kick, handled the ball to knock it past an opposition midfielder. He was lucky to get away with a booking after the referee (who was pure value for money) claimed' "i can't remember which number it was, but if i do, i'm going to book you." He then ran round looking closely at the Stokelsey defence and picked out Hutton as the cultprit, but kept his cards firmly in his pocket. 'Birthday Boy' Nightsy, for the first time ever, kept quiet, and got away with it.

Pughie also got into trouble 5 minutes later, as he was adjudged to have committed a foul which he disagreed with and let his mouth run away with him. Just when it looked as though he might walk for the incident, the ref withdrew his hand from his back pocket as it looked a bit too tight to pull his cards out.

After the trouble, Stokesley remained on top for the next 10 or 15 minutes until a seemingly harmless ball down the Kneeton right was being followed by Left Pegger, who received a call of "its going out," by someone who shall remain nameless (as i can't remember who it was), and the winger nipped round him to deliver a cross which was met by Ray Headon, who later claimed his slip was a scissor kick (we're not having any of it), to level the scores at 1-1. After the goal, Kneeton seemed to be spurred on and had the better of the rest of the half, with Headon hammering his Dave Challinor like long throws into the area, but the defence of Stokesley standing firm until half time.

After the break, Kneeton brought on a trio of subs, which saw both forwards changed looking to cause problems to the Stokesley rearguard of Richie, newly turned 28-year old Nightsy and Hutton. The start of the second half Stokesley started to put a bit more presssure on Kneeton but not really creating a clear cut chance with Kneetons captain and Man of the Match Danny Shoulder clearing up any loose ends at the back.

The breakthrough was made about 15 minutes into the half when a Stokesley corner was dropped by the keeper and could only be miskicked to a waiting Bushbishlak who slammed in a right footed effort from just outside the six yard box for his second of the game.

Stokesley then took complete control when 10 minutes later, a cross from Stokesleys right wing found its way across the area to Left Pegger, who turned to Right Pegger to tuck away number three. A rare occurrence as normally his right footed efforts result in the subs having to retrieve the ball from a neighbouring field, resulting in theories from the rest of the team that it was in fact, a poorly placed cross.

5 minutes later Largie was fouled over by the left hand touch line. A helping hand from the offender to pull him to his feet ending in the Clown man stumbling backwards 10 yards before producing an excellent backwards roll with cheers coming from the Stokesley faithful on the sideline. The resulting free kick from Chinola found its way to the edge of the area and Bushbishlaks head as he nodded it over the onrushing keeper to complete his hat-trick and effectively kill the game off.

Only a few minutes later Scouse John cut inside the area from the right and onto the penalty spot. After twisting and turning try ing to get a shot away, he laid it to his left, where Largie was waiting, but, seeing he was flagged offside, decided to send the shot wide of the goal from 6 yards out.

5 minutes from the end, Kneeton scored a consolation goal as Lee White took it past 4 Stokesley defenders and into the area to rifle the ball over Stainsby and into the bottom corner.

However, this goal gave Kneeton false hope as straight from the kick-off, the ball was knocked out to the left to Left Pegger, who exchanged a neat one-two and crossed for Bushbishlak to score with his left at the near post and complete a PERFECT hat-trick and his fourth of the game.

In the final minutes, Kneeton tried to bomb forward and a good shot was tipped over the bar from Stainsby, who obviously forgot there were no cameras around, when producing a damatic roll to complete the save.

After the game, Pughie was named as Stokesleys Man of the Match. Bushbishlak, after scoring 4 goals, could only look on in disgust as his award was snatched away from him - making him feel so sick in fact, he ended up outside the changing rooms and hurling up his breakfast.

However, Stokesleys bangwagon rolls on with a game against Ossy Rangers at home on Tuesday.

Stokesley Team: Stainsby, Nightsy, Richie, Hutton, Left Pegger, Scouse John, Harry, Chinola, Pughie, Bushbishlak, Largie

Subs: Shaun, Baz, Mole

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