BOSS Tom Killick revealed that Joe Quigley had been on course for his worst display in a Poole Town shirt prior to his first senior hat-trick at Bideford.

The on-loan Cherries striker bagged his first senior treble as table-topping Dolphins blitzed the Devon side 6-0 on their own patch.

Marvin Brooks (2) and Steve Devlin started the demolition job before 18-year-old Quigley made it five goals in six matches for Poole with his second-half haul.

Brooks opened the scoring by heading home after Michael Walker had recycled a corner on 34 minutes, a lead that Steve Devlin quickly doubled before the interval.

A tidy finish from Brooks two minutes after the restart sealed the points and the roaming midfielder then laid on Quigley’s first with a precision pass.

The towering frontman then led Chris McGrath and Matt Villis a merry dance to bag the goal of the night and rounded off the scoring with a late effort from the edge of the penalty area but Killick insisted Quigley still had plenty of scope for improvement.

“Funnily enough it was probably his worst performance for us in some aspects and he would probably admit that himself,” said Killick.

“But he really came alive after half-time and his second goal was a truly exceptional effort. He must have beaten the centre-half three times before going round the keeper and holding his nerve to score.

“His technical ability is one of his greatest strengths. You look at his size and perhaps pigeon hole him in terms of how you think he will play but there is much more to him than just size and strength, he has very good close control and is very mobile.”

The victory saw Poole register the joint-biggest winning margin for an away side in the Southern League Premier Division this season, level with promotion rivals Redditch United’s 7-1 triumph at Slough in October.

And coupled with Weymouth’s third defeat in four league matches – a 2-0 reverse at Hungerford – the Dolphins extended to five points their lead at the top of the table with one game in hand on their Dorset rivals.

“It is no disgrace or surprise for Weymouth to drop points in a tough fixture like that,” added Killick.

“When we looked at the fixtures we always felt we had a good chance to make some progress. Hungerford always provide a really difficult test.”

Dolphins: Hutchings, Tallack, Lindsay (Martin, 64), Walker, Whisken, Pettefer, Burbidge, Devlin, Quigley, Brooks (Davis, 66), Gilkes (Gillespie, 66). Unused subs: Roberts, Thomas (g/k).