Knowle skipper George Seeley hails 'starboy' brilliance after magnificent seven-goal Stratford rout

George Seeley hailed ‘starboy’ Talib Copeland’s brilliance after his hat-trick helped Knowle to a statement 7-0 rout of FC Stratford at The Robins’ Nest on the new season’s opening weekend.

Copeland scored two before half-time and another one afterwards to get plenty of the 451 in attendance, a number greatly boosted by the United Counties’ Ground Hop initiative, raving about his ability.

The forward had earned himself a little fan-club by full-time, one young fan even prompting laughter from the touchline as he leapt into a staunch defence of the forward when he was shoulder-barged, shouting: “Don’t touch my Talib!”

And the newly-established supporters group can add Seeley to its members list.

“Starboy! He showed last year what he can do,” the skipper told Club Reporter George Revell pitchside at full-time.

“At the back end of the season he probably carried us towards that league title, to be honest. His ceiling is as high as anyone’s in the side and he can play at whatever level he wants.”

The forward netted 34 times and provided 15 assists in Knowle’s treble-winning campaign last term and the new season couldn’t have got off to a better start.

On Copeland’s stand-out performance against Stratford, Seeley said: “He was brilliant today - he showed his quality with his finishes, especially the second. He can win games by himself and he really took the game away from Stratford.”

One Watford-supporting groundhopper even suggested he would take Copeland at Vicarage Road given the choice but Seeley soon shut that door: “I’m delighted that we’ve got him tied down, to be honest!”

Seeley’s delight did not rest just with Copeland, though. He says Knowle’s entire squad worked relentlessly and came out of bed after a slow start to put on a show for the bumper crowd.

“I thought we were really good today,” he said. “They were fully in the game for the first 15 minutes and we were in bed a little bit, but we just worked really hard.

“I think we realised that we weren’t very good in the first 15 minutes, but then we worked hard, won more first and second balls and never looked back and put a bit of a show on really.

“Credit to everyone, all 16 of us worked really hard and the subs didn’t make us any weaker as well, which is a really nice sign.”

Our full match report, alongside further post-match reaction, can be found on the Club website and across our social media channels.

Second in the league table owing to Atherstone Town’s 7-0 demolition of Shirley-based Highgate United, Knowle are next in action on Saturday, August 1 as they visit Northampton Sileby Rangers for their first away game in Step Five, before hosting Coventry Sphinx the following Tuesday at 7:45pm.