March Town’s latest striking sensation believes his side are capable of a top-half finish in the Thurlow Nunn First Division.

Toby Allen, 18, struck his first Hares hat-trick in their excellent 4-2 success over local rivals King’s Lynn Town Reserves on Tuesday, and the youngster says the new season has breathed a new wave of positivity into the March squad.

“We’ve had a very positive start,” he said.

“There is a big change in the togetherness within the team on and off the pitch. We all want to work hard, not just for ourselves but for each other and we all want to be as successful as possible. It’s a great squad to be a part of right now.”

Allen also netted in March’s 2-2 draw at Diss Town on Saturday – the Hares’ fourth consecutive league draw – and the former Outwell Swifts star, who has now hit six goals in seven games, says he is happy to be in such a rich vein of form so early on.

“It’s great to be scoring and it was a great feeling to score my first hat-trick on Tuesday, especially in the circumstances it came in,” he said.

“Local derbies are games that you must be winning to get as high up the table as possible.

“I’ve always set myself short term and long term goals for every season as I feel it pushes me to try to be at my best for every game that I play in so hopefully I can reach them this season.

“We’ve been set the target of finishing in mid-table and above and I think it’s achievable with the squad we have as long as everyone keeps fit and we continue to play the way we have been recently.

“We also want to get as far as possible in the cups we’re in and I believe we’re more than capable of achieving domestic success as well as a mid-table finish.”

March, who are sat in ninth in the league standings, will hope to continue their impressive form tomorrow, but face one of the division’s in-form sides – Whitton United.

The Suffolk outfit have won five of their seven league matches and kept back-to-back clean sheets in recent wins over Norwich United Reserves and Little Oakley.