Pearce's 'proud moment' after first City hat-trick in win over Yeovil

OLLIE PEARCE reflected on a ‘proud moment’ as the Minstermen stormed to a 4-0 win over Yeovil Town on Saturday – which included a first hat-trick in York City colours for the striker.

The York Summer signing is now the joint top scorer in the National League after an exceptional start to life in North Yorkshire, having registered 12 league goals so far this campaign.

Three of those 12 goals came in Saturday’s dominant 4-0 triumph over Yeovil, in which the striker slotted away a free-kick, coolly finished a one-on-one before heading home his third of the afternoon.

Pearce admitted that it was a ‘proud moment’ to score his first York hat-trick, especially as his father was in attendance, whilst also joking about the difficulty of pulling Alex Hunt away from the free-kick, after his recent goalscoring prowess from set-pieces.

“Hunty has obviously got two from two in his last couple, so he took some convincing to get off it!” Pearce laughed.

“The management team spoke about it during the week, they said that their walls jumps high on free-kicks and they have no one laying down behind it.

“When the free-kick was given, I did my best to get Hunty off it and got it under the wall.

“It’s unbelievable, I’m delighted.

“One of the lads has just said that it doesn’t happen often, does a York player scoring a hat-trick.

“It’s a really proud moment, but more importantly we have won 4-0 and have got three points, and we’ve bounced back from the disappointment of last week.

“I don’t know [where the header came from], I just managed to get in front of my man, flick it on and it nestled into the top corner, which is lovely.

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"All around, a really good day.

“This is the first time he [Pearce’s father] has been up to watch a league game here.

“Obviously [having] him in the crowd helped, and I’m delighted for him to see that.”

Yeovil were reduced to ten men just ten minutes into the fixture, as Finn Cousin-Dawson was shown a straight red card after dragging Tyrese Sinclair to the ground.

Despite their man advantage, Pearce admitted that the match was quite a difficult one to play in due to the structuring of a ten-men opposition.

Pearce confessed: “Sometimes it’s harder to play against ten men because their game plan has to change.

“They put men behind the ball and obviously we had to be patient at times, and I know that it can be frustrating to watch when it’s backwards and sideways.

“It’s like a puzzle, you’ve got to try and find the missing piece.

“We stayed patient and scored at really good times.

“I suppose all that matters is that we got three points and scored four really good goals.

“When you’re down to ten and go in at 1-0 at half-time, from their point of view they are probably thinking that they can hang on and maybe try and nick something.

“That second goal was vital, and then scoring not long after half-time was really important as well.

“Like I said, it’s hard to play against ten men.

“I know it shouldn’t be, but it is because they make it extremely difficult for you and you’ve got to move the ball fast.

“We did, and we managed to put a couple of our chances away.”

Goals number 10, 11 and 12 for the National League season puts Pearce joint-level with AFC Fylde’s Nick Haughton in the top goalscoring charts.

It’s an achievement which Pearce is proud of, but the striker remained aware that there is still plenty of football to be played across the season.

“There’s a long way to go yet.

Ollie Pearce celebrates his hat-trick in York City's 4-0 win over Yeovil Town. (Image: Tom Poole) “Game by game, obviously it’s nice to be up there, but if I’m up there come April or May or whenever it is, then that would be good as well.

“I take it game by game.

“I feel sharp, I believe that the way we play football is always going to create chances and I have a knack of getting in the right positions and making the right runs at the right times.

“I back myself to score goals, so fingers crossed, there is more to come.”

Pearce was also one of three City players to have accumulated four yellow cards so far this season, whilst a fifth would have resulted in a one-match suspension for the 29-year-old.

However, the cut off point for the maximum amount of yellow cards a player can receive ended on Saturday, with Pearce grateful to be able to interact with the referees once again.

“I haven’t spoken to the ref for five weeks now, I think I prefer it!

“I’ve had to learn to be quiet, sometimes you get so engrossed in the game and you just shout all sorts of stuff.

“I’ve had to learn to keep quiet, but good, I can get back to normal now.

“We have spoken about it over the last few weeks, we keep quiet, let the football do the talking and we got the result today [Saturday].”