James Gershfield (number 7) celebrates completing his hat-trick with a team mate Tom Pett

POTTERS Bar Town boss Adam Lee was full of praise for hat-trick hero James Gershfield whose treble helped the Scholars crush AFC Sudbury 5-1 on Saturday.

Potters Bar's Matt Clifford curls in his side's fifth goal

The ex-London Lions forward, who signed for Bar in the summer, converted two first half penalties, before Elvis Balic added a third before the break.

AFC Sudbury pulled one back on 65 minutes before Gershfield wrapped up his hat-trick and Matt Clifford bagged Town’s fifth late on.

A delighted Lee said: “Before the game James had scored three in three and I said to him ‘let’s go again and get yourself on the scoresheet’.

“To get a hat-trick is fantastic, he really deserved it, he worked hard and even late in the game was chasing things.”

Of his side’s performance as a whole he added: “Ironically I didn’t think that was the best we have played this season, but it is the best result in terms of scoreline.

“The difference was that we were ruthless in front of goal, but we had to ride a lot of minutes where we were under the cosh and had to dig in.”

Going into the game Bar were determined to put one over their visitors from Suffolk, who they had lost to 1-0 in November and crashed 6-0 to last season.

The visitors began the game on the front foot.

They forced an early corner before Bar keeper Ryan Burbridge, replacing the injured Matt Bennett, made a couple of early stops from David Wareham and Richard Howell, while James Baker headed over.

In their first real attack Gershfield raced away down the right flank, as he got into the box he tangled with full-back Jemel Fox and the referee pointed to the penalty spot on 12 minutes.

Gershfield netted the spot kick down the middle giving the hosts the lead against the run of play.

He was to score a second from the spot just 13 minutes later.

Bradley Harrison was adjudged to have been fouled by Nathan Clarke as he took a shot.

This time Gershfield sent the ball into the right side of the net beating ex-Southend United keeper Danny Gay.

A shocked Sudbury came close to pulling one back soon after, Baker got his head to a cross from the right and was only denied by a superb one handed save by Burbridge.

On the half-hour mark Bar stretched their advantage to three.

Pett’s cross from the right found Harrison to the left of goal and his ball back across was scrambled in by Balic.

After the break Bar could have gone further ahead, Pett’s turn and shot was arrowing for the bottom corner until Gay turned it around the post.

Sudbury finally did find a way past Burbridge on 65 minutes as Baker held off defenders Ross Dedman and then Dan Odamo before smashing an unstoppable effort past the Bar keeper.

Burbridge then made a crucial stop with his feet from Howell to keep his side two goals ahead.

Then Pett worked his way to the byline before centring to Gershfield, he took a touch before chipping a super shot into the top left hand corner out of Gay’s reach on 83 minutes.

In injury time Bar rounded off the scoring with their fifth of the day.

Gershfield fed Joe O’Brien, his shot was saved by Gay, but the ball fell to Clifford who coolly found the bottom left corner.

The Scholars are away to Heybridge Swifts on Saturday.