THERE was no Christmas hangover for George Gaskin as the striker went above and beyond on Boxing Day – scoring two hat-tricks for two different teams!
The busy 26-year-old had obviously not gone overboard with the sprouts or sherry as he starred in Littlehampton Town‘s 11am kick-off against Worthing United in the Southern Combination League Premier, netting a treble in the 4-1 victory.
Following that game, Gaskin dashed across the A24 to join his new team-mates at Horsham as they hosted Ryman South bottom club Godalming Town at 2pm.
Gaskin, who only officially signed for Horsham on dual-registration forms on Christmas Eve, got to Gorings Mead five minutes before kick-off and took his place on the bench.
With Horsham cruising, Gaskin was introduced with 15 minutes to go and he made the perfect first impression in the 8-1 drubbing, scoring a quick-fire hat-trick to take home his second match ball of the day and grab a potential world record!
He told The NLP: “We’ve been struggling a bit this season at Littlehampton so it was a massive win for us against another team near the bottom, and it was nice to get three goals myself.
“I had already played 90 minutes, so I wasn’t sure if I was even going to get on the pitch at Horsham to be honest.
Stupid
“I thought, ‘I’ve got 15 minutes, hopefully I’ll get a chance and nick a goal’. I ended up having about five touches and scoring three!
“I’m friends with Horsham manager Dominic di Paola, and agreed to help him out when Littlehampton weren’t playing as they have a few injuries.
“With the weather being quite bad in recent years, it’s been a while since I had played on Boxing Day. I don’t think many people are stupid enough to play twice in one day, so it’s probably the first time somebody has scored two hat-tricks!”
The former Littlehampton player-boss made the step up from Step 5 to Step 4 look easy, but says his focus remains on the Marigolds.
With Littlehampton enjoying a relaxed schedule in the coming weeks, Horsham should be able to benefit from the striker’s goals for a while yet.
Gaskin, who has scored 33 times for Shoreham, Littlehampton and the Hornets so far this season, added: “Littlehampton don’t play too much over the Christmas and New Year period, so I’ll probably play the next four or five games for Horsham.
“There’s a lot of travelling in the Ryman South and I have other things like family to think about, so Littlehampton will remain my priority.
“They’re my local team, I can see the lights from my house. I play with all my mates there, so it’s very enjoyable. Hopefully I’ll be able to stay injury free and get a few more hat-tricks!”
