Weekly Football Phrase: (a) Hatful

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(a) Hatful

There are several words in football that describe the number of goals a player scores. Two goals scored by one player is a brace, three goals by the same player is a hatrick, originally a term from cricket, but what if a player scores more. There is a noun that is used to describe scoring a lot of goals, and that is hatful. While it doesn’t indicate exactly how many goals, if a player scored four or five goals, you could say they scored a hatful. More commonly the noun is used to describe a teams overall goal scoring, as it is rare for a single player to score more than three goals. One way to imagine the meaning of this word is to think of a hat as a container full of objects, for example money. Performers, such as magicians, after a show pass their hat around the audience asking for money. If it was a great show, they would receive a Hatful of coins.

• Example: West Ham’s Andy Carroll must score a hatful to make England Euros squad warns boss Bilic. (Headline, The Mirror)
• Example: Suarez has scored a hatful of beautiful free kicks throughout his career, mostly for Liverpool, but hea€™s sure to add many more wearing a Barcelona shirt. (Article)

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