Sion Bradley becomes just third Caernarfon Town league hat-trick scorer since club’s top flight return in 2018-19

JD CYMRU PREMIER – OCTOBER 21

Caernarfon Town 5 (Bradley 3, 37 & 58; A Davies 49, Clarke 69)

Cardiff Metropolitan 1 (Donohue OG 52)

Sion Bradley became just the third player to score a Cymru Premier hat-trick for Caernarfon Town since the club’s top-flight return in 2018-19.

Now in their sixth season back in the national league after a 10-year absence, the Canaries whipped Cardiff Metropolitan 5-1 at The Oval last Saturday with Bradley the star man.

The resounding victory lifted Town into third spot in a campaign where Richard Davies’ men are aiming to better their best-ever finish of fourth achieved in 1996/97, 2018/19 and 2021/22.

Bradley, 25, is flying this season, having already picked up the Cymru Premier Player of the Month award for July/August.

He is only the third Caernarfon player to score a Cymru Premier hat-trick since 2018-19.

The other two are:

Nathan Craig (November 3, 2018)

Craig notched a treble, which included two penalties, in a 4-3 defeat at Carmarthen Town in 2018-19.

Lloyd Marsh-Hughes (March 31, 2023)

Thomas Lloyd Marsh-Hughes scored after 1, 29 and 58 minutes for a Caernarfon side which beat Airbus 4-0 at The Oval last season – and could afford the luxury of two missed penalties. Daniel Gosset also scored in this Canaries win over doomed Airbus.

Saturday’s tussle at The Oval saw Caernarfon denied what looked like a certain penalty before a free-kick was awarded after Bradley was brought down on the edge of the box.

Bradley’s free kick to the left of the area crept through the defensive wall and beat Met keeper Alex Lang low down.

In the 37th minute Bradley retrieved the ball on the left, cut inside the box, made room for a shot and drilled a lovely right-foot effort into the right-hand corner.

Four minutes into the second half, Adam Davies started and finished a move which brought him an eighth league goal of the campaign.

The former Airbus hitman sent the ball to Ben Wynne on the right, he fed Darren Thomas whose shot was kept out by Lang, but Davies was following up to net the rebound.

Met responded with a lucky goal on 52. Lewis Rees’ shot was parried into the air by keeper Lewis Webb, and in an attempt to clear the ball off the line, Dion Donohue could only miscue into his own net.

In the 58th minute came a magical moment as Bradley recorded his first hat-trick for Caernarfon with a magnificent 20-yard free kick which beat the Met wall and keeper Lang all ends up.

Things got worse for the students when skipper Kyle McCarthy was caught in possession by Zack Clarke, who ran on to lash in his seventh league goal of 2023-24.

It could have been six, with Louis Lloyd’s strike coming back off the post and Lang denying Bradley a fourth from the rebound.