DELIGHTED boss Brett Whaley hailed his March Town United squad as the best he has ever managed after watching them end Thetford Town’s 100 per cent league record.

The Hares summoned their most hard-working performance of the season to beat the league leaders 2-0 at the GER on Saturday - announcing themselves as genuine Ridgeons First Division promotion challengers.

Whaley said: “I’ve never had a better squad to manage than this one. These players are all good enough to play at this level and quite a few are good enough to go to the next level. It’s exciting to be around that.

“We’ve shown that we’re as good as any side in this league. But the reality is that we haven’t been as consistent as Thetford.

“What we said on Saturday was ‘we’re not coming here just to show we can give them a game, we’re going to beat them.’

“Too many times this season - against Wisbech, Ely and Whitton - we’ve proved that we can compete with the best. But until today we hadn’t proved that we could beat them, so that was a big step for us.”

It was a magical performance from Ash Brand that helped third-placed March win their fourth consecutive game. The speedy winger scored the first and created Ondre Odain’s second with a stunning piece of trickery down the left.

“Everyone involved was fantastic,” said Whaley. “It took us 19 seconds to score in the second half. That’s two weeks on the trot when we’ve talked at half time and the reaction has been incredible.

“That goal was all about Ash Brand but everyone played well, they ran themselves into the ground.”

March return to action on Boxing Day when Downham Town visit the GER.

Whaley added: “We need to keep our feet on the ground. This was a good win and it’s four on the bounce now but if we’re going to get involved in promotion then it needs to be six, seven or eight.

“After Saturday it’s easy to think you’re a bit further than you are and slip up in a game where you shouldn’t. That’s one thing we must guard against now because we don’t want to throw this away by not winning our next game.

“The big thing for us is, everyone will look at this result. Sides are going to be up for coming here so we need to make sure we maintain our level.”