Lilywhites 5 star performance

Cambridge City treated the Boxing Day crowd to a five star performance as they comfortably overcame the challenge of Bedford Town.

A comfortable win was not on the radar after 20 minutes as goalkeeper Niall Conroy was forced to withdraw through injury. Step forward left back Mason Spence who came off the bench and contributed to a superb all round team performance as the Lilywhites moved up to third.

On a heavy pitch, it was the visitors who had the first opening when David Manu forced Conroy into a low save.

It was Bedford who had the next opening when Ben Robinson lost the ball. The visitors broke, and former Lilywhite Bradley Woods-Garness fired wide of the target.

Then, came the injury to Conroy. The City keeper came charging out and was subject to a heavy challenge. After lengthy treatment, he left the field to be replaced by Mason Spence.

The makeshift keeper was in action straight away as he had to beat away an effort from the visitors.

Shortly after, Spence was picking the ball out of the net when Ashton Grant converted a penalty to give the visitors the lead.

But the goal coupled with the injury to Conroy seemed to galvanise City and they were soon back in the contest. Jordan Gent did well to head down a cross into the path of James Hall who made no mistake to fire home from close range.

City were now in their stride but no one could have predicted what Nathan Olukanmi would do next. The City winger won the ball on the edge of his own penalty area, and ran the length of the pitch leaving the Bedford defence in his wake and delivered a superb ball for James Hall to bring down and fire past Bonaiti for City's second goal of the contest. A truly stunning goal.

Bedford came out for the second half looking to get back into the contest and Spence was forced to make a good stop with his feet shortly after the re-start. However, it was the home side who looked more likely to score and when Jordan Williams headed home the game was as good as over as a contest.

The industrious Ryan Towner then had a long range effort that was parried by Bonaiti and just alluded Lewis Wilson on the rebound.

With City piling forward at every opportunity, you sensed that Hall would soon get a hat-trick and it duly came when he fired home with plenty of minutes of the match still left.

Ryan Sharman then got in the act as he scored the fifth for the home side from close range.

James Hall, the hat-trick hero, was replaced by City legend Neil Midgley who almost created a chance for the sixth but it remained at 5-1 as City recorded a comfortable local derby victory.