March Town United chairman Phil White has lavished praise on manager Chris Bartlett and his players for their “amazing” start to the year.

The Hares followed up last Tuesday’s stunning 5-3 Cambs Invitation Cup win over higher level Histon with a 4-1 win against Leiston Reserves in the league on Saturday.

Lethal pair Denny Escorcio and Dan Woods again did the damage - Escorcio hit a hat-trick and the league’s joint top scorer Woods made it 23 for the season.

White said: “It’s amazing. Chris Bartlett has done a fantastic job. Credit to the players, they are getting a lot of approaches from other sides but they’re turning them down.

“It’s been some turnaround. We spoke with Chris before the start of the season about a three year plan but we’ve done miles better than we expected.

“Our target was a top 10 finish but it looks like we’ll do comfortably better than that. And there’s the cup semi final to look forward to as well. Hopefully we can get a home draw.”

The Hares, who are sixth in the Thurlow Nunn First Division, travel to leaders Long Melford on Saturday.

Manager Chris Bartlett said: “I’m very pleased with the lads. They deserve a lot of credit. Leiston was not a polished performance but it was a good win.

“We desperately want to push on. The top two are probably out of reach but the top four is not out of the question.

“Long Melford is a massive game. They are the only side who have given us a hiding this season (March lost 4-0) so we are very determined to go there and get a result.”