Stowmarket Town’s Josh Mayhew breaks Thurlow Nunn League goalscoring record with hat-trick at Saffron Walden

The Stow striker had equalled the record the previous weekend, scoring from the spot in a 1-0 win at Great Yarmouth Town to match Matthew Metcalf’s 50-goal haul for Wroxham in 1992-93.

Mayhew broke the record in style by scoring three times to take his impressive goal tally for the campaign to 53, as Rick Andrews’ men claimed their fourth win in a row.

Stow were 2-0 up inside the first 15 minutes at Catons Lane, with Mayhew dinking the ball over his former Bury Town team-mate Neil O’Sullivan on 10 minutes, before Remi Garrett’s shot five minutes later took a kind deflection to go past the Saffron Walden goalkeeper.

Having already broken the record for most goals scored by a player in a single Thurlow Nunn League season with his first goal, Mayhew then doubled his account for the afternoon with a virtually identical finish, lobbing O’Sullivan in the 33rd minute to make it 3-0 to the visitors.

Saffron Walden were reduced to 10 men on the stroke of half time when winger Lewis Francis was shown a straight red card for fouling Stow captain Ollie Brown.

The home side’s cause was not helped further on 59 minutes when midfielder Julian Simon-Parsons was sent off for a tackle on Garrett, which left Saffron Walden to play the remaining half hour with nine men.

The third red card of the game followed in the 69th minute after Stow goalkeeper Craig Brand handled the ball outside of the box, leaving midfielder Jack Baker to don the gloves for the rest of the afternoon.

Stow made their man advantage count in the final minutes, as substitute Amar Lewis headed in from a Garrett cross on 84 minutes, before Mayhew finished off a Lewis cross to complete his hat-trick three minutes later.

In added time, Joe Murphy grabbed a consolation for the hosts with a shot which crashed off the crossbar and past stand-in goalkeeper Baker.