Striker Jordan Bowery admitted he was ‘proud’ to net his first-ever career hat-trick during Saturday’s dominant 4-0 victory against Port Vale.
Despite snowy conditions approaching at One Call Stadium, skipper Ollie Clarke set Mansfield on their way with an instinctive finish inside the opening minute.
And while defender Leon Legge was dismissed at the start of the second period for the visitors, Bowery took full advantage by finding the back of the net on three separate occasions.
“It’s my first-ever hat-trick so I’m proud of that and hopefully I’ll get a few more,” he told iFollow Stags.
“Three points, clean sheet, three goals so I’m very happy with that.
“[The third] is probably the best finish of the three. It was great play by Ollie [Clarke] and the weight of pass allowed me to hit it first time with my left foot. I think it was a good finish.
“It’s not very often that happens but I’ll take anything. I’m just pleased to, first of all, get three points and the home win, that’s the main thing.
The hat-trick hero believes it was the best Mansfield performance of the season as they limited Port Vale to minimal chances throughout the contest.
“I felt like they didn’t cause us many problems. They had that one chance where [Marek] Stech made a great save in the second-half but other than that I thought we limited them and didn’t look troubled.
“Going all the way through the game I thought we were pretty comfortable.
“I’d say all-round [the best performance]. We had a very good first-half against Crawley at home but of two halves I’d say this was the best one.
“We gained a lot of confidence from the win [at Scunthorpe] last week and we know we’ve got to go out there and perform how we know we can.
“We’ve got good players in the squad and we produced it today. Getting that win last week was a big factor in it.”
And after recently moving, the No. 9 acknowledged he may have little choice in where to place his match ball this evening.
“I haven’t got a clue – there’s stuff all over the place because we’ve just moved house so I don’t know. I think I’m going to cuddle it tonight,” he joked.
“I’m glad I’m playing my part in the team. At the start of the season I wasn’t playing my best football, whether that was the type of football being played I don’t know, but I’m not making any excuses.
“I’ll hold my hands up and say I wasn’t very good but now I feel like I’m contributing more.
“I’m working hard and the gaffer [Nigel Clough] has got a lot out of us. It’s benefitting me whether I’m out wide or central I feel like I can always be a threat.”
iFollow Stags can watch Jordan's interview in full by logging into mansfieldtown.net/ifollow.
