Four-goal Shekiera Martinez proudly paraded her Barclays Player of the Match trophy and signed matchball following her sensational display in West Ham United women’s team’s 7-1 rout over Crystal Palace on Sunday.
The Germany U23 international was faultless at the VBS Community Stadium as she became the first player in the Club’s history to net four times in a WSL fixture - and they were four well-taken goals.
The first came on 18 minutes as the forward latched onto Verena Hanshaw’s pinpoint delivery, planting a header past Shae Yanez to give the Hammers the lead. Then, following a brilliant counter-attack involving Viviane Asseyi and Katrina Gorry, Martinez cut in on her left foot and curled her effort into the far left corner - a collector’s item.
She secured her first-half hat-trick just three minutes later when Oona Siren’s defence-splitting pass allowed her to round the goalkeeper before tapping into an empty net, and her fourth came just after the hour mark, as she finished calmly one-on-one with Yanez.
It’s clear how quickly Martinez has adapted to England’s top flight, having spent the first half of the season on loan at SC Freiburg. The 23-year-old gave everyone else in the league a four-month headstart, but has already risen to joint-third in the scoring charts with nine goals in eleven WSL matches to her name.
Her Hammers teammates and staff could not be more happy for her, as they all signed the matchball after the side extended their unbeaten run to five matches.
“It's really cute that my team gave me this ball and they all put some cute messages on it. I love it!” Martinez expressed.
“It always feels good to score and if I score four, it feels much better. I'm really happy about the first half and also for scoring the three goals. I think it was a long time ago since I last scored a hat-trick, so I'm really happy.
“I think all of them were good assists from my teammates, and I would say my favourite was the second one with my left foot. I was confused that I could shoot like that with my left!
“I'm really happy and I think this shows how happy I am to be here, and how good I feel in this team. I love playing with this team. I like every minute I'm playing here and [hope we] can just keep going like this.
“It's also nice because it's the first game we've scored seven goals in, and it shows how good we as a team are.”
Martinez became the first-ever women’s team player to notch four goals in one game. Hanshaw, who spent six years with Martinez at Frankfurt, assisted the first, as the pair continued to show their connection on the pitch.
Martinez said: “I love it when Verena [Hanshaw] and I have situations like this because she's celebrating like it's her goal, and I just love it!”
