JIMMY Martin crossed for a hat-trick of tries as Coventry Rugby romped to an 11-try 76-21 win against Nottingham in the Premiership Rugby Cup.
Martin dotted down a 19-minute treble while Tommy Mathews added 21 points from the kicking tee at Butts Park Arena.
And Tom Hitchcock, Will Biggs and Josh Barton all touched down twice while Sam Maunder and Daf Tiueti also crossed in a dominant victory.
The win keeps Coventry’s quarter-final hopes alive ahead of a trip to Premiership champions Northampton Saints before hosting Leicester Tigers in their final pool stage game.
Coventry made the perfect start as on-loan scrum-half Maunder marked his first start for the club with a try after just three minutes following Tiki Nayalo’s break.
However, Nottingham responded five minutes later as full-back Jack Stapley crossed for the visitors.
Another Nayalo break allowed Hitchcock to power over on the quarter-hour mark in a frantic start to the contest.
And Coventry dotted down again five minutes later as Tiueti benefitted from a pair of strong forward carries.
The home side lost Toby Trinder to a yellow card early in the second quarter and Nottingham took full advantage of the extra man by shunting Jack Dickinson over the line.
Mathews stretched the home side’s lead with a simple penalty before Ryan Hutler released Martin to score Cov’s bonus point try in the corner.
Martin scored his second try of the game two minutes before half time as he applied the finishing touch to a flowing team move.
And Mathews converted from the touchline to send Cov into the break with a 20-point advantage.
Martin completed his hat-trick on 50 minutes before replacement Biggs crossed twice in the space of seven minutes from close range either side of Nathan Tweedy touching down for the visitors.
Cov added some gloss to the scoreline with three tries in the final eight minutes which began with Hitchcock forcing his way over in the corner.
And replacement Barton powered over from a five-metre scrum before completing the scoring in the final minute after intercepting a pass and racing to the posts.
Coventry are next in action against Northampton Saints on Saturday, February 8 with kick-off at 2.45pm at Franklin’s Gardens.
