PORLOCK kept in touch with the leaders of the Premier Division in the Centregreat Taunton & District Taunton Saturday Football League with a 5-1 home success against Bridgwater Grasshoppers.

On a windy afternoon at West Somerset College, it was Porlock who settled quickly with an early chance but the visitor’s goalkeeper claimed the ball.

The deadlock was broken after 20 minutes when a sharp move down the right released Caleb Laney who rifled the ball in to the far bottom corner. It was not long before Laney went one on one with the ‘keeper and slotted it past to make it 2-0.

Porlock continued to push for a third before the half was up and it nearly came as a long throw from Chris James was delivered into the Grasshoppers box, but the keeper punched the ball away and it ended up going over the bar, soon after which the referee called time on the first half - 2-0 to the hosts.

The second half started in the same fashion with Porlock very much being the dominant team, and soon after the restart young Laney scored again, notching his second hat-trick in a week.

The Grasshoppers heads had dropped and Porlock were hungry for more, but on the hour the visitors finally started to play some good football.

However the confident home back line were standing strong, and as Grasshoppers tried to overload the Porlock defence they left space behind them and a quick back to front move from the home side released Ollie Morris, Caleb Laney and skipper Adam Langdon to go three on two with the goalkeeper and the centre back. Ollie found acres of space towards the left hand side of the box and threaded the ball to Adam Langdon at the back post who knocked the ball in to a virtually open net, putting the scoreline 4-0 in Porlock’s favour.

Grasshoppers continued to push for a consolation goal and their luck was just about to show as a corner was delivered into the Porlock box and as goalkeeper Darren Sherring came to claim the ball he slipped on the soft surface and it ricocheted off the striker into the back of the net.

However in the slip Sherring picked up a groin strain and was replaced in goal by Ollie Morris. Charlie Dodd and Cody Truscott were introduced and both substitutes took no time getting up to the speed of play with Dodd making yet another instant impact as he was found with an inch perfect pass from Mike Mullen which he took with a lovely touch and rifled the ball past the Grasshoppers keeper to nullify any sort of comeback from the visiting side and make the scoreline 5-1.

The home side then saw out the remaining 15 minutes and claimed all three points to move them up to third in the table, and are now the only team in the premier division who can mathematically catch front runners Wembdon. With the two sides meeting each other on Saturday, April 4, this could well be a title deciding game.

Porlock starting line up: Darren Sherring, Zac Brown, Harry Kivell, Chris James, Lewis Goodrum, Mike Mullen, Ollie Morris , Adam Langdon (C), Braden Taylor, Caleb Laney and Joe Fitzsimmons. Bench all used: Ryan Parsons, Charlie Dodd, Cody Truscott and Mark Daniels.