Hemel Hempstead Town 4 Redditch United 0
Hemel Town bounced back to form in impressive style as Dave Pearce inspired them to a thumping victory over Redditch at Vauxhall Road.
The Tudors had suffered a shock 4-0 defeat to Banbury in their last outing, but they quickly erased the memories of that performance with a ruthless display on Saturday to maintain their position at the top of the Evo-Stik League Southern Premier Division.
The diminutive Pearce was on scintillating form, proving to be a constant menace for the Redditch defence and helping himself to three well-taken goals.
His first arrived with just eight minutes on the clock as he slotted the ball home from a right wing cross from Alex Campana.
Redditch were passing the ball around nicely but had to wait until the 24th minute before they hit their first shot on target when Stuart Hendrie’s effort was easily saved by Tudors keeper Sam Beagle.
And it was man of the match Pearce who pounced again to score the crucial second goal after being set up by good work from Ryan O’Toole.
Pearce then saw a brilliant curling effort tipped over the bar and had a shot deflected onto the post before being cleared away for a corner.
Redditch had the ball in the net after 30 minutes but the goal was ruled out for offside, and Hemel made most of the early running in the second half but both Matt Nolan and Campana saw efforts saved.
Jake Reid had a chance to reduce the deficit but his shot was well dealt with by Beagle, and Hemel put the game to bed with 12 minutes left to play.
Campana broke down the right and crossed to an unmarked Nolan, who completely missed his kick, allowing Pearce to hammer the ball home to complete his hat-trick.
And a couple of minutes later, the Tudors wrapped up the win with a fourth goal.
A cross found Pearce in space and this time he turned provider, unselfishly laying the ball back to Steve O’Leary who slotted home to complete the scoring.