Rolt has been a bolt from the blue

There are much tougher tests to come, but teenager Brad Rolt could hardly have done more to announce himself to Posh fans this summer.

The youth team graduate on a one-year development contract at Posh hit a hattrick against an outmatched Kettering Town side to make it four goals in 150 minutes of personal action across three friendlies.

Posh boss Darren Ferguson described Rolt as a ‘natural goalscorer’ which is not a bad line for a footballer to have on his CV. His development, probably out on loan this season, will be watched with great interest this season.

Rolt’s goals arrived in the second half of a match played over two 60 minute periods. The first was the pick as a rasping drive found the top corner. His second wasn’t a bad finish from the edge of the box either and few cared that his hat-trick goal was a result of him blocking a rushed attempted clearance by the visiting goalkeeper.

That completed an 8-0 rout which also featured two goals for Mo Eisa, a spectacular strike from George Cooper, a goal for young Flynn Clarke and a penalty from Jack Taylor.

He didn’t say so, but Ferguson was probably more delighted that Eisa claimed his first two goals of pre-season. The club record signing needs to step up in the forthcoming campaign while Ivan Toney’s replacement tries to find his feet.

Some classy passing between Louis Reed, Serhat Tasdemir and Siriki Dembele, with the latter unselfishly squaring to his better-placed teammate. saw Eisa open the scoring. Joe Ward’s excellent wing-play led to his second goal.

Cooper lobbed the ‘keeper from 30 yards to win the ‘goal of the day’ competition and it was his shot that hit the post enabling Clarke to tap home.

Idris Kanu was fouled for the Posh penalty and George Boyd, who ran strongly throughout, was denied a goal from 30 yards by the crossbar.