Hinckley AFC manager Courtney Belford was delighted with his side’s attacking prowess in their 7-2 win at Kirby Muxloe.
Hinckley scored their 100th goal of the season at Ratby Lane to retain their place among the country’s leading scorers.
They scored four in the first half and three in the second, missing a number of chances late on to add to that tally.
And Belford was pleased with the way his side got straight back into their rhythm despite a 17-day break.
He said: “We’ve got that much quality in the team. That free flow, the little one-twos that will create the overloads and we’re ruthless.
“It sounds horrible to say that it could have been double figures and it shows how much quality we have. As long as we keep matching teams for work rate and commitment our quality should always show through. That’s why we are where we are in the table at the moment.
“But we’re not getting ahead of ourselves, we’ve got to keep working hard and creating chances and keep putting them away. We’re doing what we can and we’re going to go again against Birstall.”
Belford admitted that the Josh Gunn’s sending off for the home side made things more comfortable for Hinckley.
But he credited the home side as “one of the better sides we’ve played” despite labelling his side’s performance as “fantastic”.
The home side pulled it back to 4-2 with the final kick of the first half, but Belford said his message to the players was to get through the early stages of the second period and get back to playing their football.
“We gave away a rash penalty but if you go in at half time 4-2 up you take that every game.
“The message was to just get through the first 10-15 minutes. We knew they were going to have a go, they had a couple of chances that they didn’t take. Then they’ve had a sending off which was a poor tackle and it totally changed the game.
“We were brilliant against ten men. We moved the ball so quickly and so well, we’re difficult to play against with a man advantage.
“We’ve got over 100 goals and we’re not into the new year yet so we’re doing something right. We’ve got to make sure that we’re a little bit more stingy at the back but we threw ourselves in front of things. They’ve not really opened us up.
“It’s just pleasing to get another win.”
But there was controversy around Kirby’s first goal when Adam Parry ended his period in the sin bin. He ran straight into an attack for his team to set up a chance, from which he scored the rebound.
Belford, assistant Joe Conneely and the Hinckley players were furious that he had ran straight back into an attacking situation.
“It was a sinbin so we said to the referee that he’s got to be called onto the pitch. The lad just took it out of his hands and ran straight on.
“My understanding of the rules is that he’s got to come on in their half. Instead he ran past our dugout, onto the pitch and they’ve got three on one.
“There’s no point arguing with the officials at this level, we don’t get anything out of them, but I told him it’s been videoed so to watch it back and see.
“But it’s one of those things you’ve got to deal with. We make mistakes as players and managers, and officials are going to make mistakes. Sometimes when that happens you’ve got to take the game out of their hands and we did that.
“Luckily we’ve gone on and scored seven goals so it’s not made too much of a difference.”
