Chesterfield striker Eoin Doyle has the chance to join Walsall legend Gilbert Alsop in an elite group of players to have scored three hat-tricks in as many league games, when his Spireites side visit Doncaster Rovers later this afternoon.The Irishman became the first player since Blackburn Rovers striker Jordan Rhodes in 2011 to score back-to-back league trebles, netting three against both Scunthorpe United and Preston North End, giving him the opportunity to become the first player player since 1946 to bag three successive hat-tricks.
If he does find the net three times at the Keepmoat Stadium on Saturday, Doyle will be only the eighth player in English league history to achieve the feat.
Jack Balmer of Liverpool was the last player to net three consecutive hat-tricks, in November 1946. In the 1930s, Gilbert Alsop (Walsall), Alf Lythgoe (Stockport County) and Paddy Wrightson (Chester) all scored hat-tricks in three successive matches. Everton great Dixie Dean and Tom Jennings (Leeds United) achieved the honour in the 1920s, shortly after Frank Osborne (Tottenham Hotspur) had become the very first to do it in 1925.
League hat-trick statistics
- Over 10,000 league hat-tricks have been scored since 1888
- More than 4,000 players have scored a league hat-trick
- Back-to-back league hat-tricks have been achieved 192 times
- Seven players have netted three successive league hat-tricks:
Jack Balmer (Liverpool) - 1946
Gilbert Alsop (Walsall) - 1939
Paddy Wrightson (Chester) - 1936
Alf Lythgoe (Stockport County) - 1934
Dixie Dean (Everton) - 1928
Tom Jennings (Leeds United) - 1926
Frank Osborne (Tottenham Hotspur) - 1925
Note: The numbers are for league football (i.e. the Premier League and The Football League combined), and are league games only, excluding Play-Offs and cup games. A player scoring six or more goals in a single game is only counted as one hat-trick.
Statistics provided by the English National Football Archive at enfa.co.uk.
SOURCE THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE