BOSS Martin Patterson hailed the improvement of Corfe Castle star Ocean Smith after his hat-trick paved the way for a 4-2 victory at Holt United.

Smith netted twice in the first half to go with to Ryan Cattano’s goal to give Corfe a 3-0 lead at half time.

And stand-out performer Smith completed his hat-trick with a sublime curling effort from the edge of the box.

Patterson said: “Oash has come on so much in the past year. He's such a hard-working player and thoroughly deserved his goals – he should be extremely proud of himself.

“Holt had the majority of the possession in the second half but we defended well.

“Iain Kay – who had been ill all week and was a doubt for the game - was fantastic up front and played a key role in the first three goals – particularly our third, which was a brilliant team goal.”

Victory put Corfe into he top 10 of the Dorset Premier League.

Patterson added: “A massive thing for us is belief. Sometimes we need to forget who we are playing and just do what we are good at – getting the ball down and play.

“We've taken a while to think that we can compete with established DPL clubs and I'm hoping that this result and our recent win over Gillingham can give us the confidence to believe.”