After having a week off from the action, the Blues returned to the festive action in style.

Despite their behind-the-scenes chaos, Corby Town played exceptionally well and were just unfortunate with the scoreline.

Regardless of this, Long Eaton United showed relentless attacking threat and pounced on every opportunity they created.

The game started with Corby Town on top as they pressed hard right away.

Corby’s Dennis Halliday hit the post in the 12th minute after beating our backline.

Davidson-Miller struck the crossbar three minutes later with a cross.

James Shaw and Jayden Cotterill were both shown yellow cards for two question decisions. Shaw went in for a challenge on a Corby man and won the ball but also caught the player. Cotterill was booked for picking the ball up for a throw in too early inside our half.

In the 35th minute, Corby’s early work was undone after Bucci was pushed inside the box. Garnett stepped up and slotted it into the bottom left corner.

Three minutes after the first, Davidson-Miller was played through on goal by Garnett and found the top right corner.

In the 41st minute, former Corby man Thompson-Matthews stayed composed in the box and slotted the ball home.

With the last touch of the first half, Bucci headed the ball into the back of the net from Jake Finnerty’s corner.

We started the second half in quick fashion as we almost found our fifth a lot earlier.

Davidson-Miller was played the ball across the face of goal, but he cleared it over the bar.

On the hour mark, Thompson-Matthews had a shot saved well with the rebound falling to Garnett. He had his effort saved too by the goalkeeper.

On the 67th minute, Garnett had two. George Atwal ran through on goal and unselfishly squared the ball to Garnett who walked it into the net.

Seven minutes later, the hat-trick was complete. Like his second goal, he was handed an empty net after Shaw poked the ball past the goalkeeper from close range.

In the second minute of added time, we had seven. Elliot Hartmann beat two men and played the ball across the face of goal. It was a brilliant cross as it was turned in by a Corby player.

Lineup: Lewis King ©, Elliot Hartmann, Gianluca Bucci, Jayden Cotterill, Jake Finnerty, Jamie Hanson (George Atwal, 58’), James Taylor, Tristan Thompson-Matthews (Connor Pace, 78’, Jahvan Davidson-Miller (Dexter Walters, 78’), Evan Garnett, James Shaw. UNUSED SUBS: Coden Duncan.

With this win, we move to 10th in the league.

Our next match is against Belper Town on Boxing Day

You will not want to miss it.