HARVEY SAUNDERS, currently on loan to Darlington, scored a hat-trick against Wigan Athletic on Tuesday.

Playing for Fleetwood Town’s development team, Saunders’ treble helped his team to a 5-1 win at Fleetwood’s training ground.

The first was a tap-in after a mix up in the Wigan defence, and the second a close-range header after a cross by Macauley Southam-Hales, and Saunders completed his hat-trick to finish Fleetwood’s big win.

The hat-trick will be a confidence boost for the 21-year-old, who has found goals hard to come by for Darlington since his transfer to Fleetwood in January, a move that saw him immediately loaned back to Quakers for the remainder of the season.

He has scored once in his last 16 Quakers appearances, but in total he has found the net eight times this season for Tommy Wright’s team.

The manager, also a striker in his playing days, has long been an advocate of the speedy forward's abilities and over the past year worked extensively with him on improving his game.

Since his January move Saunders has trained with Fleetwood at the beginning of the week before returning to North-East in time for Darlington’s Thursday evening training session.

He will be in the squad for this weekend’s game at Boston United, one on Darlington’s final four fixtures.