MATTY Holmes revealed how he had challenged Toby Holmes to claim the Southern League South golden boot – and the frontman responded by hitting a hat-trick against Merthyr.

The clinical frontman led the charge to earn Magpies a 4-0 win over their play-off chasing opposition at KoolPak Stadium.

His treble came inside the opening 53 minutes and was added to by Luke Holmes to ensure Wimborne chalked up their ninth league victory of the season.

Star striker Toby was part of the Wimborne squad which attended a team meeting on Thursday to assess their targets during the second part of the campaign.

And it was there that boss Matty had set the test for his frontman to become the league’s top marksman.

Asked whether the top-scorer accolade was in his striker’s thinking, manager Matty told the Daily Echo: “I have challenged him to be that way – since the Thursday meeting – to try to win the golden boot.

“They were great finishes on Saturday, composed and calm, and that’s what we want from him. His work rate off the ball was tremendous, which we were also really pleased about.

“He has done it for the past couple of seasons and we are pleased he is doing it again this season.”

Former Parley, Dorchester and Poole Town man Toby extended to 17 league goals his total for the campaign.

He is still behind Weymouth’s Brandon Goodship (19) and Swindon Supermarine’s Conor McDonagh (18).

Victory took Magpies two points clear of the bottom three and only three adrift of a place in the top 10.

“It was the complete performance and I was really pleased,” said the Magpies boss.

“The boys to a man were wonderful and everything came together. We broke well and scored some really good goals.

“They played a high line so at times we could get Toby in. Merthyr are play-off material and for us to do that to them at home shows how good we can be when we are firing on all cylinders.

“We had a good team meeting on Thursday and spoke to them all.

“I said the last 18 games had to be like cup finals and that’s how we played. We do it half way through the season to look at targets and where we are at.

“I said to them ‘how many games have we lost by one goal?’. If we can turn those around we have a great chance of climbing the table and surviving.”

Wimborne visit rock-bottom Staines in league action on Saturday.

The Wheatsheaf Park side have won just three games this season.

Magpies: Benfield, Penny, Maybury, Davidson, Oldring, Pettefer, Stokoe, Clarke, T Holmes, Burbidge (Owen, 88), L Holmes (Young, 82). Unused subs: Francis, Lee, Collins (g/k).