Hitchin Town manager Mark Burke was pleased with his side’s clinical display in front of goal as they thumped Kings Langley 6-0 in Saturday’s local derby at Top Field.

A hat-trick from Trey Charles and goals from Charlie Smith, Elliot Bailey and Lucas Kirkpatrick saw Hitchin blow away their rivals and climb to sixth in the Evo-Stik Southern Premier Division table.

Burke was delighted with his side’s performance in front of goal but was keen to stress his disappointment at the first-half performance of his side.

The Canaries boss told the Comet: “At the end of the day I’m very pleased with the result but I wasn’t happy with the first-half performance.

“Although we were 2-0 up I thought they were the better team. They played all the football and we didn’t get going.

“We did have two shots and two goals so we were clinical and we defended well so I was pleased with that but I let them know at half-time, in no uncertain terms, that I wasn’t happy and they needed to raise their game.

“They did that in the second half.

“It was good to get the third goal just after half-time to put the game to bed. It really deflated them and gave us a boost.

“We were really in control after that but I keep saying it, we were clinical.

“We didn’t have loads and loads of chances we just took the ones we did have and it’s always nice to win a game 6-0, taking us into next week at Banbury with a bit of confidence.”

Burke was also pleased to get back to winning ways following derby defeat against Royston Town on Boxing Day.

“What we try and do is set ourselves little targets,” he added.

“When we have a defeat we try and go on a run of undefeated games. That has worked for us in the past few seasons and it’s what we said today.

“We lost to Royston but now we have to try and start again. It was a local derby and we knew it was going to be tough but I’m pleased we got the win.”