The best striker in the Bluebird Premier League? Few of those present at Albie Turner Field on June 12 would argue with that tag being applied to Steve Nickson, after the Feltonmix Metro striker almost single-handedly fired his side back to the top of the table, following an emphatic 5-1 victory over East Coast Bays.
The former North Shore United marksman bagged four of his side's haul, but afterwards the talk was not about the quantity of his finishing, more its quality, not to mention his overall workrate in a match in which Metro were made to work hard for the points by a Bays side whose recent run had seen them in a position where a win in this match would have left them right in the title equation.
Indeed, it was Bays who looked the more likely side to open the scoring in this match, after John Lawler had sent a free-kick searing past Paul Harvey's post in the third minute of play. Losing Phil Morcombe with hamstring damage in the fifth minute meant a slight change of plan for Brian Turner's team, with Dale Fletcher taking on a greater share of the frontline duties.
In the thirteenth minute, Fletcher engineered a brilliant opening, aided by Chris Ruffell. The pair worked a one-two, with Fletcher slipping the ball through for Rab McNeill. Grant Schofield was alert enough to block at the former Metro striker's feet, but the ball fell to Fletcher, who is still wondering how he managed to fire wide of a virtually unguarded net.
How his profligacy was punished two minutes later. Away went Willie Thompson down the right, his cross deflected back to Nickson, who set up Nigel Curties. His shot was blocked and the ball cannoned across the face of goal, with only Nickson reacting to the sphere's trajectory.
He met it on a tight angle, about level with the six yard line and midway between the respective edges of the goal area and penalty area. Thwump! Pick that one out! Top far corner, on the volley, Harvey as stunned as the rest of us - 1-0 Metro, and how!!
Within seconds of this prodigious strike, Carl Jorgensen tried his hand at something similar, the ball, this time, flashing past the upright. A McNeill volley, as Bays regrouped, swerved a yard wide of the far post, while a barnstorming run by Ruffell saw him career past three challenges before getting a shot in on goal.
Schofield stopped the effort, while the shooter, too, was stopped in his tracks, the injury he sustained in a Metro defender's despairing lunge eventually forcing him from the field. Indeed, Ruffell's mobility, meantime, was severely hampered, and such is the importance of the midfielder to Bays' attacking plans, their hopes of winning this six-pointer were similarly damaged.
Still, the visitors ended the half looking more likely than Metro to next find the net, with Chris Harding, Morcombe's replacement, and Fletcher both going close before the interval.
After it, however, Metro were in their element. Whatever player-coach Sean Hird says to them at half-time should be bottled and sent round the corner to the DSIR for analysis, because it invariably results in a scintillating spell of about twenty minutes' duration which leaves their opponents battered and very much on the ropes!
It certainly did on this occasion, with Nickson very much to the fore. In the 51st minute, a fine run from the number nine left four men trailing in his wake. His blocked shot fell to Curties, whose fiercely struck grasscutter forced Harvey to use every inch of his stretch to turn the shot round the post. From Jason Thompson's corner, the goalkeeper pulled off an even better save, defying Curties once again, this time a headed effort.
Metro increased their lead in the 57th minute. Nickson sparked the move, while his partner in crime, Danny McHenery - he, too, played well, without getting the reward in terms of goals which his hard-working display deserved - drew the defence before slipping the ball into the path of Jason Thompson, who coolly slotted home from twelve yards.
After Harvey had again performed heroics, this time to prevent John Hannah from scoring at the wrong end, Nickson netted his second, Metro's third, in the 66th minute. Schofield cleared to Hird, who had entered the fray moments earlier. Bays' defence was caught square, and Hird supplied Nickson with the sort of pass strikers relish in such situations. Harvey's approach didn't put him off - 3-0.
For all of four minutes, Gary Seed's enterprising burst culminating in a fiercely struck drive which, though Schofield got his hands to it, proved too strong for the goalkeeper to divert to safety, something he had done moments before when McNeill unleashed an unerring shot goalwards.
Nickson, however, was clearly in the mood for more goals, as witnessed by his surging run down the right and resulting shot. On this occasion, the ball whistled over the crossbar, but in the 77th minute, he made the most of a Hannah error in the penalty area to leave Harvey beaten all ends up, the ball crashing into the far corner of the net for a memorable hat-trick.
Bays weren't giving up the fight, however, and only bad luck denied them a second goal ten minutes from time. Schofield tipped a curling Steven Laus effort against the post, and the ball rebounded to Fletcher. The prone goalkeeper watched in relief as the striker proceeded to hit the same post with his shot - it wasn't his night.
Further saves by Schofield, from McNeill and Rodney Grove, followed, but in the 83rd minute, Nickson applied the coup de grace, a delicious glancing header, the opportunity for which arose following a perfectly weighted Willie Thompson cross from the right.
Amazingly, 'Nicko' missed a great chance for a fifth goal for himself three minutes from time. Hird slipped him through a spreadeagled defence once again, and the striker rolled the ball past the advancing Harvey, and past the far post as well. 5-1, however, was the outcome, although Bays would certainly have enjoyed a better return had Schofield not been in such fine form.

Metro: Schofield; O'Mara, Mair, Van Dort; W Thompson, Jorgensen, Curties, Lawler (Hird, 61), J. Thompson; Nickson, McHenery (Davidson, 69).

Bays: Harvey; Hannah, Laus, Darlington, Grove (booked, 34); Morcombe (Harding, 7), Ruffell (Deaker, 68), Smith, Seed (booked, 31); McNeill, Fletcher.

Referee: Paul Smith

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