JUBILANT Pawel Abbott today talked about the major career moment which sent Town flying high in Coca-Cola League I.
The 21-year-old's 13-minute hat trick at Vale Park pushed Town up to fifth ahead of this Saturday's Galpharm derby against Barnsley.
Abbott now has five goals for the campaign and, while hopes of a full or `B' call-up for Poland remain high on the agenda, he's concentrating only on helping Peter Jackson's side establish a play-off challenge.
"Scoring my first professional hat trick is right up there with the best moments of my career and the fans were brilliant," said Abbott today.
"Words can't describe how you feel when you hear your name being chanted like that. I felt confident I was going to score every time I got the ball. It's the sort of stuff you dream of as a kid and the support was fantastic."
Abbott paid tribute to manager Peter Jackson and his teammates in what has become a landmark start to the post-promotion campaign.
Even though Town beat Lincoln United 7-0 in the FA Cup in 1991, it's 22 years since they scored seven goals without reply in successive games.
"I didn't have the best pre-season, I own up to that, and the gaffer made the right decision to leave me out," said the Polish Under 21 cap who is now too old for that interntional level.
"That just made me work all the harder in training to get back in and, now that I have, I'm going to fight to keep my shirt.
"We've got a great bunch of lads at this club who enjoy coming to work every day and we are determined to do the best we can.
"There was a lot of pressure on us at the start of the season and we didn't peform so well. Maybe when expectations dropped a bit we started to play really well, so I don't want to put pressure back on us by saying how well we could do.
"Hopefully we can carry on playing like this and then we'll see what happens. We are keeping clean sheets and all the lads are playing well. It's very enjoyable to be involved."
Akpo Sodje made his League debut as a substitute while the thigh injury which forced off his brother, Efe, is not serious.
Abbott added: "The gaffer keeps telling us to believe in ourselves and that if we play to our potential we have nothing to fear.
"The lads are just sticking together and working hard at our job. I got two great passes from Chris Brandon and a one on one, but the whole team deserve credit for the goals."
