Prolific Parfitt hits five as Clay Cross go goal crazy

After felling Phoenix 8-1 on the opening day of the campaign, Clay Cross went one better and mauled Newark Town 9-1 to set the early pace at the top of the table.

It could have been a different story though because, after only eight minutes, Newark skipper Kyle Nicholson was presented with an open goal by a blunder from after Millers ‘keeper Ryan Hopkins. However, his shot went wide to spare Hopkins’s blushes.

From the resultant goalkick, it was Hopkins’s long ball that found Parfitt, who breezed his way past Chris Bennett in the opposition goal to open the scoring. An unstoppable strike two minutes later from Jordan Hendley made it 2-0 and then two more goals before the break from captain and man-of-the-match Joel Holland and Parfitt ended any doubt about the outcome of the game.

It took Parfitt just four minutes after the interval to secure his hat-trick and this was followed by two more goals in a minute from the striker.

Newark substitute Ricki Peterson pulled a goal back in a goalmouth scrimmage to make it 7-1, but in the last ten minutes, Clay Cross subs Lee Clay and Alex Hewitt also got on the scoresheet.

Next up for the Millers is a trip to Scunthorpe to meet Appleby Frodingham on Thursday night.