FORMER Morton starlet Shaun Rodgers was the man of the hour as Port Glasgow moved into second place in the Fourth Division as his brace helped the Undertakers dispense of Campbeltown Pupils in a 7-1 mauling.
The ex-Cappielow attacker looks to be getting back to his best as he spearheaded a near-perfect performance for Tam Jamieson's side, who closed the gap on leaders Knightswood to six points.
And Rodgers says that the opportunity to get back enjoying his football was a key driver in getting him to pledge his future to the Parklea side after making the choice to leave big spending Johnstone Burgh last season.
"It's always good to score - but to get a hat-trick has left me delighted," he told the Tele.
"It's just good to keep our winning run going - but that's a few weeks on the spin now that I've scored and it's a good feeling. I'm enjoying it here and I hope that it continues.
"Since I've come back into the team, I've managed to get myself on the scoresheet pretty much every game, bar maybe one. I'm just happy to help the team.
"I'm playing with boys that I know and I'm enjoying it, so hopefully I can continue to do that for as long as possible."
The tricky wideman set the tone for the day as a weary-looking Argyllshire side made the four hour, two-ferry long trip to Parklea, scoring inside the first ten minutes to get things up and running.
The Undertakers' lead was doubled inside 12 minutes after Dylan McLaughlin got on the end of Jack Purdue's eye-of-the-needle past to finish past the Pupils' keeper.
The tenacity that the Parklea men, who went into the game after putting four past Cambuslang and five past Carluke in their last two matches, put on show was dazzling, and it was mesmerizing the Pupils' backline, who were at sixes and sevens.
This saw them move the ball from side to side and cause gaps to appear in the box, and stand-in skipper Ross Kearns benefited when he finished off a spell-binding move inside 20-minutes.
Campbeltown made their mark midway through the first half after Jayden McGivern was adjudged to have fouled Scott Souden in the box.
Sam Murdoch was sent the wrong way from the penalty spot, presenting Jamieson's men with a challenge to get back on the bike and go again.
After the break, the Parklea men took a while to get going, but a four-goal blitz inside the final half an hour put the gloss on a successful afternoon for Jamieson's side.
Dylan McLaughlin was in the right place to finish off a move that started with McGivern's desire to win the ball in his opponents' box, harrying his man into losing possession before squaring for the wide man to finish at the back post on the hour.
Chris Millar would get in on the act just seven minutes later, again finding space at the back post to rise above his marker and head home fellow second half sub Aidan Duffy's cross to make it 5-1.
Former Ton teammates Alex McWaters and Rodgers would put the icing on the cakeinside the final ten minutes with two sublime finishes to round off the scoring.
McWaters beat the offside trap and coax the Pupils' keeper off his line before turning back on the ball and beautifully dinking it over him into an empty net for number six.
And Rodgers would score in a similar ilk with eight minutes to play - getting in behind to round his opponent before finishing with aplomb to send the Undertakers into second place ahead of this weekend's clash against Eglinton.
Speaking after the match Jamieson praised his team for not letting themselves get drawn into a dogfight against a Pupils side who set out their stall to make things difficult for their hosts.
"It's all about the three points," he said.
"Campbeltown won't be the best of teams we'll play all year, but they came and sat with two banks of five and made it difficult for us.
"We had to take the game to them and set our standards and stick to them. And we were poor to begin with.
"We could've been 2-0 down and we had to rely on Sam to make a good save and head another ball away before we've even pressed the play button.
"Once we found our fluency, though, we got the job done."
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