Young happy to repay Le Prevost's faith in him

CRAIG YOUNG fired in a hat-trick to see last year's champions crush Vale Rec at home on Saturday. 'Really happy. It was a bit of a relief after missing a hatful of chances recently,' he said.

The 20-year-old is something of a utility player.

At the moment he finds himself playing up front with Jamie Ferbrache as AJ Saunders and Simon Tostevin are sidelined with injuries.

Young missed large parts of last season and there were rumours that he was going to walk away from North. He is now happier with life at Northfield.

'I'm enjoying it at North - I love the club and the coach has belief in me and I showed him that I can do it,' he said.

North coach Mick Le Prevost was happy with Young's performance.

'He got a hat-trick but he could have got five, six or seven,' he said.

'I'm really pleased for him.'

Young put the chocolate-and-blues in the lead in the opening 10 minutes when he beat Rec keeper Jody Bisson in a one-on-one situation on the end of a counterattack. His second came 10 minutes later.

Ferbrache rounded Bisson and rolled the ball across the goal for Young to have a simple tap in.

Despite the game being all North, the score remained 2-0 until half-time.

The hosts upset the apple cart when, a few minutes into the second half, their striker, Gareth Holden, found the bottom corner with a first-time shot after North's defence had failed to clear.

But the visitors bounced back straight away with the move of the match.

Captain Darren Martin combined well with young winger Glyn Dyer down the left before finding Ferbrache in the box and struck the ball home with a sweet volley.

North's fourth came courtesy of an Alex Le Prevost header at a corner and Young wrapped up his hat-trick with 10 minutes to go with a shot that found the far corner.

Man of the match was North's Kyle Stone with an awesome display in the midfield.

Despite winning 5-1, coach Le Prevost was not his usual bubbly self.

'I wasn't happy with our finishing: we've got to put our chances away,' he said.

'We're creating between 15 to 20 chances a game. I'm not joking: we should have been 8-0 at half time but they weren't the best.

'They were missing a few and they were very poor, but that's not our fault.

'We're playing better football than last year but we're not putting our chances away.'

Also on Saturday at St Andrew's, Rangers defeated bottom-placed Rovers 2-1 in an uninspiring affair.

The visitors had taken the lead within the first couple of minutes through Jamie Toussaint.

But goals from Dave Cusack and George Prow saw Rangers take all the points.

'It was a awful game of football,' said Rangers boss Mac Gallienne afterwards.

'We didn't play well. They didn't play well.

'But with six points out of the first three games, I can't complain.'