Mitchell Weiss bagged a hat-trick as Kings Langley won 4-2 in an entertaining Southern League Division One Central clash with Ware.
The visitors stunned Langley with a simple goal within the first 30 seconds as Rod Young took the ball to the right corner flag and delivered an unchallenged low cross that Elliot Bailey swept into the net.
A bitterly cold wind dropped on resumption off and both sides endeavoured to play attractive football as the game settled down after its dramatic start.
Weiss came close with a shot on the turn and a failed one-on-one with Joe Simmonds, but the pressure eventually told just after the half hour when a Dean Hitchcock corner posed questions in a crowded box and a towering Stuart Deaton header provided the answer.
The second half opened with all to play for, but Kings appeared to have failed to learn their lesson when Jimmy Hartley received the ball wide left, twisted and turned and unleashed a precision shot that was perfectly paced inside the near post with five minutes on the clock.
The response this time was quicker, as debutant Mo Shariff set Weiss free on the right wing and his pace put him one-on-one again with Simmonds, whom he calmly nutmegged to draw Kings level again.
Ben Crilley cleared another Weiss effort off the line shortly after, but for the next 25 minutes the result balanced on a knife edge. The difference was Weiss, who seemed to get faster and stronger as the game progressed.
When a looping Ryan Plowright cross appeared to be beyond him, he turned and hit a stunning volley over his shoulder into the top corner of the net.
It was apparent that this was the match winner, but Weiss was not finished, and a left wing diagonal through-ball from Hitchcock enabled the Kings number nine to beat the offside trap again and stroke home his third with two minutes remaining.