Moore's perfect hat-trick helps Wrexham upset Coventry
Kieffer Moore scored his first hat-trick in more than seven years, and it was a perfect one as Wrexham inflicted the first defeat of the EFL Championship season on Frank Lampard's Coventry City with a thrilling 3-2 win at The Racecourse.
After crashing out of the Carabao Cup to third-tier Cardiff City in midweek, Wrexham scored another solid result against one of the top two sides in the league, having drawn 1-1 at second-placed Middlesbrough last weekend.
Victory was made all the sweeter as the hosts were forced to come back from going behind in the 22nd minute when Ephron Mason-Clark slotted past Arthur Okonkwo for the game's opening goal after collecting a ball over the top from the impressive Tatsuhiro Sakamoto.
Coventry's lead stood up to half-time, but when the game reached the hour mark, Moore lit things up with his first of the night, which was no less than the home side deserved.
Having competed well with the league leader without reward in the first 45 minutes, the equaliser came with a hint of controversy as Moore tapped in a Josh Windass cross with his right foot, replays suggesting he might have been marginally offside when he did so.
But there was absolutely no doubt about Moore's second nine minutes later.
Windass was again the provider, sending in a pinpoint cross from the right side of the box that Moore nodded home at the far post without even having to jump, giving Wrexham the lead for the first time in the game.
The same combination also provided the Red Dragons' third as they sensibly played on after Sakamoto had gone down appealing for a free-kick. Referee Anthony Backhouse saw no foul play from Liberato Cacace, causing Coventry to lose focus for a split second.
That was enough to allow Cacace to find Windass, and he in turn played a perfect throughball for Moore to collect and fire home with his left foot to complete his perfect treble on 83 minutes.
Moore's only previous trebles in English football came for Rotherham United against Southend United in August 2017 and for Barnsley against Rochdale in August 2018, both in EFL League One.
There was a slightly nervous finish for Phil Parkinson's side as Sakamoto hit arguably the most attractive goal of the night to get Coventry back within a goal, but his 88th strike came too late for Lampard's men, who despite having a further six minutes of added time, couldn't affect the result.
Defeat made no difference to Coventry's place at the top of the table with 25 points, but the gap to Middlesbrough is now just three points.
Wrexham, meanwhile, moved up to 11th on the table on 17 points after a third straight game without defeat, putting the wind back into the sails of its promotion charge.
"It's a statement result for us tonight, not for anybody else but for ourselves," Parkinson said after admitting he was very pleased with the win.
"As I said after the Middlesbrough game, the confidence and the belief is growing and we're getting our stringer players back in the fold and they all stood up to it tonight."
Lampard admitted he thought Wrexham was more than a chance of pinching a result, despite going in at half-time a goal to the good.
"It's a difficult match, we knew that before [we arrived] – the way that they play, the atmosphere and the environment here," he said.
"I smelt it at half-time. We were one-nil up, but I could smell it myself, and we just dropped a bit. Maybe that happens when you're 12 [matches] unbeaten and you win six on the bounce, [but] we can't ever believe our own hype.
"It wasn't a lack of effort, it wasn't a terrible performance, it just wasn't what we've been, and that's going to happen in football."
