Happy Liam Hughes ends his ‘treble curse’ at last with hat-trick for Worksop Town in big win over Long Eaton United

After scoring eight braces this season previously, Hughes finally got over his ‘curse’ and scored a treble to set his side on to a high-scoring success.

And the 31-goal forward was a relieved man at full-time.

“I am delighted to get a hat-trick,” he exclaimed. “I want to do my bit for the team.

"But it is always nice as a striker to score a hat-trick and it’s better that it has come off the back of a top team performance and a good win.

“I think it has been eating away at me a little bit, but I try not to put too much pressure on myself.

"If I score one, great and if I score two, even better, but if I don’t score then that’s fine.

“There’s been a few occasions where I have scored a couple and thought ‘I could have had a hat-trick there’ and even today I have missed chances, but I am just delighted to keep scoring goals.

“As a striker, it is not necessarily about those numbers – you want to score goals.

"And I remember doing an interview against Brighouse and I said it wasn’t about individual accolades, it’s about the team and getting this club back to where it belongs.

“There are 15 games to go, so let’s see where I can get to.

"But we are taking it game by game until we get it over the line now because our feet are firmly on the ground.”

After the Tigers dropped points for the first time in 19 games in last week’s draw against Bridlington Town, Hughes knew that they needed an instant reaction.

He added: “Coming off the back of the draw against Bridlington where they’re the only team to take points off us in both games and they broke that winning streak, we wanted to bounce back on Saturday.

“We had a discussion in there that we were eager for this game, and I think those two quickfire goals relaxed us a little bit and then you saw how relentless and ruthless we were.”

Hughes continues to lead the Worksop Town scoring chart with 31 goals in all competitions so far this season.

And Saturday also saw Tigers chalk up their 100th goal of an excellent campaign in just 34 games.