Hat-trick hero Ben Harmison praises his Ashington team-mates' efforts as they put six past Tow Law

The skipper – who netted with a header followed by one with either foot – took his tally of goals in all competitions for the season to 22 and commented afterwards: “I like scoring and it was nice to get a hat-trick, but the win was the key thing.

“Tow Law is a hard place to come to but I thought the lads were brilliant, and it was probably one of our best performances of the season.

“We didn’t give them time to get set with our energy in the final third, as we pressed everything and won the ball back.

“We were trying to be a bit more direct, so it was a case of hitting the two big lads up front early – Scott Heslop and myself – and to try to get balls into the box.

“We did that all night and we were quite happy that if we got chances we would put them away.”

He continued: “Our link-up play was better but it’s easy to do that when you have got willing runners, which we had throughout.

“They gave us energy as they ran past the forwards from midfield – players like Jordan Summerly, Craig Spooner, Ben Sampson and Dean Briggs.

“From my point of view, it’s nice when I can sometimes ‘drop in’ and flick the ball on or hold it up and play it them through for them.

“The lads showed hunger and desire to get forward and people got their rewards – like Karl Ross near the end.

“He popped up and scored, and you’re not going to do that unless you get into the box.”

He concluded: “To score six up at Tow Law is a great effort from the lads – and hopefully it’ll be a massive confidence booster for us ahead of Saturday’s game at Bishop Auckland.”

Ashington know a win or draw at Bishop Auckland on Saturday (April 22) will be enough to see them into the play-offs.