Lichfield City hit eight to beat Highgate United and continue title march

LICHFIELD City ran riot on home turf as they beat Highgate United 8-0 to bolster their title charge.

Joe Haines opened the scoring and went on to bag a hat-trick of assists, while braces from Callum Griffin and Jamie Spiers as well as individual strikes from Callum Rudd, Leighton McMenemy and Jordan Clement fired Ivor Green’s men to victory.

City were without three key players going into the game. Regular starters Jude Taylor and Josh Mansell were ruled out before the fixture, while Jack Edwards warmed up with the side but was deemed not fit enough to play.

But it didn’t take the Trade Tyre Community Stadium side long to find the back of the net, as Haines opened the scoring in the sixth minute when he found the top left-hand corner from a tight angle inside the area.

Griffin then doubled the scoring in the ninth minute, winning back a deflected effort on the edge of the area before turning and lashing home past Jack Sandell.

The Lichfield number ten scored again to make it 3-0 with 21 minutes on the clock, capitalising on Spiers’ ball into the area and slotting home from the edge of the six-yard box.

Just after the half-hour, McMenemy nodded in City’s fourth at the back post from Haines’ corner.

Spiers then made it five ten minutes before the break as he got on the end of another Haines cross to head back across goal and into the bottom corner.

Things only worsened for the visitors after the break, as Spiers scored the sixth just four minutes after the turnaround.

Callum Rudd headed home to make it 7-0 with 35 minutes left, before Highgate nearly pulled one back just after the hour mark, but Brendon Bunn stood firm to deny them a consolation.

Jordan Clement then fired home Lichfield’s eighth in the ten minutes before the end to conclude the afternoon’s astonishing goal-fest.