SUNDAY was the first time in senior hockey that I’ve scored a hat-trick, and it was really pleasing to get a 5-0 win at Sutton Sting.

Scoring isn’t a very regular occurrence for me so it was brilliant to get three.

They were all well-worked goals, the first one I was put through and put it away, and the other two were power play goals.

I’ve had a shoulder injury recently and I didn’t think I was even going to be playing until Thursday night when I turned up at training.

I wasn’t supposed to actually be training but coach Jared Owen said that Dan Mackriel wouldn’t be able to play because his dad was in hospital, so he asked if I could play instead.

The shoulder was okay, I’ve got a lot of strapping and tape on it like the footballers have. Hopefully it will be fine now for the matches coming up.

Sunday’s match wasn’t just about me scoring a hat-trick, it was more important to get the victory and put in a good performance, and that’s what we did.

It was quite convincing and we got a shut-out as well.

We were short of players, we only had 10 out players and Sutton had 22, they were at full strength. It shows the team spirit and character we have that we were able to get the result we did.

We have no game next weekend, which is a probably a good thing to rest a few bumps and bruises.

The weekend after that we have two games – the big match against Solway in the cup on the Saturday and then a challenge match at home to the Royal Navy on the Sunday.

After that, we know now that we’ll be playing Billingham in the play-off semi final and that will be a tough game. They’re capable of beating anyone on their day, just as we are.

It’s a one-off game and we beat them in the play-off final last year so they will be after revenge, but we will be determined not to let them get it.

Finally, I’d like to wish Dan’s dad all the best. He’s a Burnley fan so that should have cheered him up on Sunday.