RITCHIE Humphreys left Victoria Park on Saturday with a couple of momentos to make his first Hartlepool United hat-trick.

As well as the club's man of the match award, he was keeping a firm grip on the match ball, signed by his teammates after he netted three times in Pool's easy 4-0 win over Swansea.

Humphreys made it nine for the season as Pool made it ten games without defeat.

Their last reverse was at Hull on Boxing Day and with Rushden losing again, they are now 14 ahead of second spot and 20 in front of fourth.

Humphreys said: "It's my second hat-trick -I got one in the FA Cup a few years back, but I'm delighted to get my first for Hartlepool.

"For the first one, I just managed to keep running and running with it, got going and it opened up for me.

"The second came thanks to Boydy - he could easily have scored himself but set me up instead.

"And then I got a great cross from Micky Barron for the third and I actually headed one.''

He added: "The manager told us at half-time to cut out the showboating and just do the right things.

"But you can find it hard against ten men, they try that little bit harder to make up for the loss.

"We got a little bit complacent for five or ten minutes at the start of the second-half, but we stilll created more chances.

"It's another win on the board for us and it keeps us out in front. We've got a big game coming up next week for the fans and of course we want to carry this run on.

"I scored against Darlington earlier in the season and I'd love to get another one on Saturday.''

* Pool have sold out their allocation of 2,000 tickets for Saturday's derby at Feethams.

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