Marcus Stewart's hat-trick was Town's first in the Premiership ever and takes his goal tally to 20 for the season, 18 in the League. The previous Town hat-trick was Jim Magilton's in the play-off semi-final against Bolton last season.

Prior to that they are pretty thin on the ground, James Scowcroft scored one at Crewe two seasons ago while Alex Mathie scored the greatest of all Town hat-tricks against Norwich in the 5-0 as well as notching another one in a home game with Sunderland.

The previous Premiership years were not without hat-tricks, although none were in the League itself. Chris Kiwomya scored three in the Coca-Cola Cup against Wigan while Bontcho Guentchev notched three more against Grimsby in the FA Cup.

The last player to score a hat-trick for Town in the top Division was Kevin 'Jockey' Wilson who hit three in a 5-1 home win against Stoke City back in May 1985.

Town chairman David Sheepshanks has commented on last night's game at Southampton. The Town chairman missed out on the delights of the Dell as he is away at present.

Sheepshanks said: "I watched the game in a bar in the Alps with a hundred other Town supporters. We enjoyed a magnificent Town performance from beginning to end. Now we can look forward to a superb contest against Liverpool next Tuesday night."

Too right!

Hermann Hreidarsson is in London with George Burley today for his FA hearing into his stagedive in the Bradford match. Hermann has pleaded guilty but hopes to avoid a ban.

His dive into the North Stand was included in referee Andy D'Urso's match report. If he is banned he will become the third Town player to be banned due to the handy work of Mr D'Urso this season.

There is a team of safety inspectors assessing the upper tier of the South Stand today to see how many seats it is safe enough to use for the Liverpool game.

These tickets are available to Portman Plus ballot members via a dedicated booking line. Full details are being sent out to members today.

The U17s continued the losing run yesterday as they went down 1-0 at home to Charlton. They weren't particularly happy as it appeared the ball had been handled in the run-up to the goal. With the FA Youth Cup match on Thursday the youngsters have plenty more to worry about than a League Championship they have already won.

Meanwhile Town have been asked to host an FA Premier League European Football Weekend U13 match with Inter on Saturday 5th May. No further details are available, but it sounds interesting and possibly prestigious.

With talk of hat-tricks in the air we thought we'd look back at one of the more unusual scorers of a Town threesome, David Gregory. What do you remember of the man who once hit three against Watford in the ZDS Cup? Click the link on the Message Board: http://www.twtd.co.uk/messages

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