Horndean’s Zack Willett maintains incredible Wessex League hat-trick record against Cowes Sports

The pacy striker’s treble in Saturday’s 5-0 win was the fourth Wessex League game running in which he had scored three times against the Yachtsmen.

And in three of those matches he has been substituted before the hour mark!

Willett’s stunning run started in October 2021 with a hat-trick in a 9-0 Premier Division romp on the Isle of Wight.

The following April, he fired three more goals in the space of 20 second half minutes in a 4-0 Five Heads Park success.

Last October, he netted another hat-trick in an 8-0 hammering of Cowes, again at Five Heads.

For his latest treble, the 22-year-old struck twice in quick succession midway through the first half at Westwood Park before converting a penalty five minutes after the restart.

Willett is now on spot-kick duties, with Connor Duffin having the responsibility taken off him after missing from 12 yards in the 8-0 midweek rout of Bournemouth Poppies.

In all, his 12 goals against Cowes have come in a total of 251 minutes - or, put another way, a goal virtually every 21 minutes.

Willett has now scored a staggering 71 goals in just 69 league and cup starts for Horndean, plus two off the bench, since stepping up from Hampshire Premier Leaguers Paulsgrove.

Of those, 30 have now come in the Wessex Premier this season - only Brett Pitman (36) has scored more in the top flight, having played three more matches.

Duffin and Blankson - who replaced Willett on 55 minutes - completed the Deans’ nap hand performance.

‘It was important we went there with the right attitude,’ said manager Michael Birmingham after his side’s fifth straight league win kept them six points adrift of leaders Portchester with a game in hand.

‘Cowes set up with a bank of five and a bank of four and we didn’t really create much until we scored.

‘We got the job done and we came away unscathed.’

Willett, meanwhile, now has 33 goals in all competitions in 2022/23 - just five away from equalling last season’s tally with 15 league games remaining.

At his present scoring rate, he will set new Horndean seasonal Wessex League records.

At present, the most league and cup goals by a Deans player is the 41 Duffin scored last season. The record for the most league goals is 40, again set by Duffin in 2021/22.

Horndean now prepare for Tuesday’s mouthwatering Premier home game with promotion rivals AFC Stoneham.

It will be the first time the two teams have met since late January 2022 when Horndean won 3-1 at Stoneham. And guess what - Zack Willett hit a hat-trick in that game too!