“One more win will do” after Eaves hat-trick sinks the Reds
By Matt Johnson
Graham Turner is delighted that Town have hit form at “the right time” after Tom Eaves’ spectacular hat-trick sealed a 3-0 victory over Crawley at the Greenhous Meadow.
Despite being on the back foot for long periods, Town shot to victory after Eaves hammered in the first just after the interval. A persistent and powerful run followed by a delicate chip made it two, before the big striker completed his triple with the best of the lot, smashing home a half-volley with just five minutes remaining.
“I like to say that it was a terrific performance and that the score line was a reflection of our dominance, but unfortunately I don’t think I can,” said Turner.
“We had the luck today that has been missing over a period of time as I thought Crawley looked a good side and caused us a number of problems with their movement, particularly in the first-half.
“Sometimes you look at players and you think who will do the job, and its Tom Eaves today who produced an unbelievable hat-trick. He’s done what he’s in the side for and that’s it.
“I think one more win will do. The next step is securing the points to see how high we can finish. It’s been a difficult season, but you hit form at some time and ours has happened to be at the end.”
Eaves has now hit six goals in eight since joining on loan from Bolton, and GT was again thrilled with his hat-trick man after his latest performance.
“It’s as good as you get from Tom today. He might have had a little bit of luck with the second one thanks to a couple of ricochets, but his determination took him through a couple of tackles, and it was just that composure to finish it off. The other two were tremendous strikes, he does really strike the ball well.”
On further positive notes for Town, Mark Wright came on for the final few minutes after his long injury absence and GT admitted too that Jermaine Grandison may also be fit to feature in Saturday’s tough-looking trip to Yeovil.
“It’s nice to see Mark back and now we hope that Jermaine Grandison will be back and available for next week. He’ll work hard through this week and we’ll see how he is, if there’s no reaction then he could certainly be in the squad to go down there.
“We would’ve said it was tough going away to MK Dons, tough going to Coventry and Preston. So going away may release a bit of tension and there’s as much pressure on them to get the result as there is on us, so we can go there feel that we can put on a good show and put a spike in their promotion hopes.”