Happy Valley have taken a firm grip of the Ericsson First Division after a well-taken Michael Midwood hat-trick fired them to a richly deserved 3-1 win over South China at the Hong Kong Stadium yesterday. Midwood took his tally for the season to 12 goals in nine games with a masterly display against a South China team looking several shades off-colour. The tall centre-half from Huddersfield struck in the 31st, 61st and 86th minutes to hand South China a defeat which puts a severe dent in their title aspirations. Victory yesterday was handsome revenge for Valley, who had been knocked out of the Senior Shield semi-finals by South China earlier this month in an ill-tempered encounter. More significantly, yesterday's result puts Happy Valley one point clear at the top of the table and if they win their game in hand over second-placed Sing Tao, they will open up a four-point gap. Defeat for South China has left them one place off the bottom of the table, and if Casemiro Mior's men are to haul themselves out of trouble, they are going to have to start winning games quickly. 'We're absolutely delighted with that,' a beaming Midwood said after his side's win. 'It's revenge for the semi-final. We had a score to settle after the shield semi-final game . . . we knew that if we played to the best of our ability, we would create chances and score goals. We did both,' the promising 22-year-old added. Although Midwood's triple strike was the outstanding effort of the day, there were several other performances in the Valley ranks. Captain Cheung Sai-ho was again a fount of creativity in midfield and some of his passing and distribution was out of the top drawer. Similarly, Martin Kuhl was a model of excellence at centre-half and so much of Valley's best play started with the former Bristol City man. But it was Midwood who rose above his teammates. His first goal owed much to good fortune, his 20-yard strike taking a wicked deflection off a South China defender to send Caroliners goalkeeper Mick Leonard the wrong way. With South China badly missing the midfield presence of suspended Brazilian Ailton de Araujo, Happy Valley continued to create openings but were unable to add to their tally before half-time. At half-time, Mior replaced the ineffective Lee Kin-wo with new signing Rambo Jose, and for a while South China looked to be getting on top in midfield. But Valley dug in and with all 10 outfield players pitching in with the defensive duties, South China were unable to find a way through. The departure of Leonard - injured in a nasty first-half clash with John Moore - at half-time also left South China looking vulnerable between the posts with inexperienced Lau Chi-leung coming on as a replacement. He was found wanting at his first serious test. Kuhl drove in a thunderous shot from 30-yards, Lau failed to hold and Midwood was on hand to pounce and stab home his second. South China grabbed a goal back through Fernando Ornelas on 63 minutes but his effort was in vain and Valley continued to pierce their opponents defence at will. The clincher came four minutes from time. Cheung chipped a teasing ball to the left-hand side of the penalty area, Lam Hiu-fung failed to clear and Midwood blasted in his third. In yesterday's earlier game, a last-gasp effort from Ng Chun-chung helped Sing Tao grab a 1-1 draw against Instant-Dict. Ng's 87th minute header cancelled out a Yeung Hei-chi goal from the Dickies in the 55th minute.