{"id":28314,"date":"2026-09-05T11:24:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T10:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/marchetti-hat-trick-sinks-stanground\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T11:24:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T10:24:39","slug":"marchetti-hat-trick-sinks-stanground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/team\/marchetti-hat-trick-sinks-stanground\/","title":{"rendered":"Marchetti hat-trick sinks Stanground as Meridian go second"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meridian took thirteen minutes to settle and one more to lead. Tom\u00e1s Bekele found the run before the Stanground back line had turned, and Marchetti finished across the keeper from eight yards \u2014 his sixth of the season and the start of an afternoon he will not forget.<\/p>\n\n

Stanground held the line until the interval and had the better of a scrappy opening to the second half. Curtis Vane forced Marco Iversen into the only save he had to make, and for twenty minutes the visitors looked like the side more likely to score next.<\/p>\n\n

The penalty that settled it<\/h3>\n\n

It turned on 58 minutes. Sekou Ndiaye was caught by Dean Pryce as he cut inside, and Marchetti struck the penalty low and central. From that point Meridian controlled everything<\/strong>, moving the ball between the lines and forcing Stanground into the fouls that cost them a booking each side of the hour.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cHe is scoring the goals a nine should score \u2014 near post, six yards, first contact. That is coaching and it is instinct at the same time.\u201d<\/p>Rafael Duarte, head coach<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n

The third came from the right again. Ndiaye beat two defenders and stood the cross up at the near post, where Marchetti got in front of Mo Sissoko and headed down. Aaron Rowntree replaced him to an ovation eight minutes later.<\/p>\n\n

What it means<\/h3>\n\n

A third clean sheet in five leaves Iversen with the best defensive record in the division, and Meridian a point behind Northvale with a home fixture against Ashford City to come.<\/p>\n\n

  • Marchetti has eight goals in eight appearances in all competitions.<\/li>
  • Meridian have scored from a corner in each of their last two at home.<\/li>
  • Stanground have now lost both of their away matches.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n

    Ashford City visit Kingsway Park on Saturday 8 August, with tickets on general sale from Monday morning.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Three goals in a controlled second half sent Meridian into the international break in second place, with Luca Marchetti taking the match ball home for the first time in claret.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":28017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_spx_person_id":0,"_spx_fixture_id":28232,"_spx_pick_id":0,"_spx_eg_facts_label":"","_spx_eg_facts":"","_spx_figure_caption":"","_spx_news_feat":"","_spx_video_url":"","_spx_duration":"","_spx_views":"","_spx_presenter":"","_spx_media_state":"","_spx_start_at":"","_spx_media_status":"","_spx_episode":"","_spx_subject":"","_spx_subject_role":"","_spx_story_year":"","_spx_duration_seconds":0,"_spx_view_count":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[167,199,230],"spx_comp":[],"spx_fixture_ref":[],"spx_series":[],"spx_format":[],"spx_video_kind":[],"spx_show":[],"spx_sport":[],"spx_flag":[],"class_list":["post-28314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-match-reports","tag-first-team","tag-luca-marchetti","tag-premier-division"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/team\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/team\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/team\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/team\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/team\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/team\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/team\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/team\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/team\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/team\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28314"},{"taxonomy":"spx_comp","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/team\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_comp?post=28314"},{"taxonomy":"spx_fixture_ref","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/team\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_fixture_ref?post=28314"},{"taxonomy":"spx_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/team\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_series?post=28314"},{"taxonomy":"spx_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/team\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_format?post=28314"},{"taxonomy":"spx_video_kind","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/team\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_video_kind?post=28314"},{"taxonomy":"spx_show","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/team\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_show?post=28314"},{"taxonomy":"spx_sport","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/team\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_sport?post=28314"},{"taxonomy":"spx_flag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/team\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_flag?post=28314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}