Glentoran winger Daire O’Connor was all smiles as he collected his first ever hat-trick in his sides 8-2 hammering of Newry city on Saturday.
The 26-year-old struck three times, including a superb effort from 25-yards to leave the Mourne men chasing shadows for the majority of the afternoon. He could not hide his smile when posing with the match ball after the final whistle.
“I’m thrilled, first career hat-trick, so I’m glad to have one and also take the ball home with me,” the ex-Ayr United man said.
“I also grabbed one assist as well for David (Fisher) which is also pleasing.
“To be honest we conceded a goal just after having the perfect start.
“We let ourselves down a little with the set-piece and I was thinking here we go again after letting a two-goal lead slip last week against Carrick, but we stuck to what we are good at, which is getting the ball in the box.
“We were just relieved to get the third so that we felt a bit more secure. I know a couple of my goals were scrappy, but I will take them all day long.
“There was a bit of anger and venom in the boys today I think after being a bit embarrassed about giving away leads in the last two games and we were determined that that wasn’t going to happen today.”
The result was rarely in doubt after the first 20 minutes when Newry applied a degree of pressure on the ball, but that seemed to fade as an avalanche of goals gave O’Connor’s side a commanding 5-1 lead at the interval.
The Arklow native agrees: “I would say it was a very clinical performance and in truth it could have been 10 or 12 today, but I’ll take it leaving with a few goals”.
O’Connor played a key role in the early season but has been dropped to the bench since the turn of the year which has added a little more “bite” to his motivation.
“Yeah I played the first 25 games or so, then I was dropped for the last couple of weeks,” he said.
“It probably gave me a kick up the backside and it certainly seemed to work today.
“For me it’s about holding onto the jersey now and hopefully that’s the case against Larne on Friday.”