Elgin City 5 Annan Athletic 1: Four-goal Kane Hester helps City to thumping win
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AN OUTSTANDING individual performance from striker Kane Hester helped Elgin City thrash Annan Athletic 5-1 at Borough Briggs.
Hester scored four goals and set up the other as City ran out convincing winners against a side that beat them 4-0 in the League Cup as recently as July.
"From my point of view, I'm happy to get four," Hester said. "But it was a great team effort.
"I can't complain about the goals today – it was just a great Saturday for Elgin City Football Club.
"I've had five or six hat-tricks for Elgin but this is my first time scoring four goals – so it certainly feels good.
"We are hard to beat, we just need to learn to kill off games and in the last two games we have showed that."
City came flying out of the blocks and took the lead after seven minutes. A good run down the right-hand side from Dylan Lawrence was matched by an equally as good cross, allowing Hester to nod home from six yards.
There was a blow for the hosts on 19 minutes as Darryl McHardy went off with a neck injury. He was replaced by Fin Allen and hopes to be back for Saturday's trip to Stranraer.
A free-kick given away by Matthew Cooper was well struck by Tommy Goss on 25 minutes but easily held by Daniel Hoban.
Five minutes before half-time, City doubled their advantage. Hester did well to win the ball in midfield before clipping out to the right wing for Dylan Lawrence, who chopped inside and curled an effort inside the far post.
Annan almost halved the deficit immediately but Lewis Hunter's shot was blocked by his own team mate Dominic Docherty who was lying on the floor.
The points were made all but safe just eight minutes after the restart as Hester scored an early goal of the season contender.
A long ball up the park from Daniel Hoban was hit first time by the forward, looping over the head of helpless Annan keeper Allan Fleming.
Annan pulled a goal back with a little more than 10 minutes on the clock when a deflected shot broke perfectly into the path of Tam Muir who knocked home from a matter of inches.
But City's three-goal cushion was restored five minutes later when Hester – initially denied – knocked home from eight yards, despite a desperate effort at a clearance from visiting substitute Benjamin Luissint.
Within 60 seconds, Hester had his fourth – a long ball, again from Hoban, was misjudged by Annan's two central defenders, who collided with each other, allowing Hester to jog through and drill home his fourth.
Hester is now four clear at the top of League Two's goal scoring charts and is into double figures for the campaign – half way to his target of 20 goals.
"I think that's the second header of my career," Hester said of his opening goal. "Even I couldn't believe I'd scored it
"It was on a plate for me – I couldn't miss it. I don't think I've headed the ball all season so I was happy to get that one for sure.
"The lob was instinctive. It sat up lovely for me and I got a good connection on it so I enjoyed that one.
"The third was going in all day long, the defender just helped it on its way. That was a good one because we knew we'd sealed the game so the celebrations were a bit mental."
City assistant manager Jim Weir added: "That was probably the best individual striking performance I've witnessed from the touchline.
"Credit to Kane and the rest of the players, because it was important that we built on last week."
