POOLE Town boss Tom Killick hailed Warren Bentley's superb strike rate after the frontman's hat-trick fired Dolphins to a much-needed win at Eastbourne Borough.

Bentley's treble extended to 11 goals in 12 games his scoring run since joining Poole from Hungerford Town at the start of September.

With Steve Devlin pitching in with a delectable free-kick, Killick's men eased their National South relegation fears with a 4-0 win, their biggest victory of the season.

Reflecting on Bentley's explosive impact at Poole, Killick told the Daily Echo: "He deserves great credit because he has had very few chances.

"In a lot of the games, we haven't played well and haven't created opportunities so if you look at his ratio of goals scored to chances, it's exceptional.

"If he gets a chance, nine times out of 10 it ends up in the net and that's a great asset to have.

"We haven't won many of the games since Warren joined us but I'm confident with the way we're playing now, we can start creating a few more openings for him."

Bentley put Dolphins in front with less than a quarter of an hour played at Priory Lane, slotting past goalkeeper Bailey Vose from Marvin Brooks's pass.

And the former Winchester City hotshot quickly doubled the lead from close range after Vose failed to hold a shot from Will Spetch.

Devlin swept a free-kick into the top-right corner early in the second half and Bentley coolly completed his treble with a penalty following a foul on Jez Bedford by Kane Wills.

Eastbourne rallied late on and Harley Willard thundered against the woodwork from range, while Dolphins keeper Nick Hutchings made a couple of acrobatic stops to preserve his clean sheet.

"Things went our way," said Killick. "Eastbourne started quite well but we managed to score a goal and then very quickly got a second, which gave us a lot of confidence.

"I felt we defended very well and didn't really look in much danger apart from at the end when we were already 4-0 up.

"Any good results we've had this season, we've been hanging on, so it was quite nice the game was effectively won before the end."

The game marked Carl Pettefer's 200th appearance in a Poole shirt, the experienced midfielder playing 72 minutes before being replaced by Cherries loan ace Ollie Harfield.

Discussing Devlin's free-kick, Killick added: "It was a very good free-kick. It's good for Devs because we've been doubting him a little bit on his free-kicks, because he hadn't scored for quite a while.

"We switched things round a bit and people have had a turn. But he insisted on taking that one and I was pleased with how it ended up."

Dolphins: Hutchings, Lindsay, Moore, Spetch, Whisken, Pettefer (Harfield, 72), Bedford, Devlin, Bentley (Balmer, 75) Brooks, Dickson (Neale, 70). Unused subs: Gillespie, Rees (g/k).