EAST Thurrock United striker Tom Richardson hopes that his hat-trick in the FA Trophy win over Aldershot Town is a sign of things to come.

Richardson found the back of the net three times in 21 second half minutes to guide Rocks to a 4-0 win over the National League high-flyers and book a home tie against Chester in the second round of the competition.

The frontman moved to the FutureFuel Stadium in October, after impressing for Isthmian Premier League side Brightlingsea Regent.

And Richardson was pleased to play a key role in allowing Rocks to progress in the FA Trophy.

Richardson said: “I was delighted to score a hat-trick against Aldershot.

“Obviously, as a striker, you pride yourself on scoring goals and the goals I scored were in a big game for the club, so I was over the moon.

“I wasn’t here at the time when we beat Aldershot last year but I heard about it.

“When we got them in the draw, the boys said straight away in the group chat ‘we beat them last year and there’s no reason why we can’t beat them again’.

“It just so happens that we were able to do it so convincingly this time around.

“We knew it was a dangerous scoreline at 1-0 and that they were going to come at us in the second half.

“They’re a National League side for a reason so it was all about not doing anything any differently to how we played in the first half and then try and build from there.

“We scored good goals at the right time to kill the game off.

“It shows what we are capable of and we need to find that consistency and take it forward.”

Richardson played a pivotal role as Brightlingsea Regent became last season’s Isthmian North champions.

And Richardson departed the R’s having scored 34 goals in just 59 appearances for the club.

While the striker enjoyed working under James Webster, who is now in charge at Aveley, he is thankful to Rocks boss John Coventry for believing in him.

Richardson added: “I’m really enjoying it here. The boys have made me feel very welcome.

“On the pitch, I have not been scoring as many goals as I would like and I’m not used to that. But hopefully this is the start of scoring a few more goals for the team now.

“Covo is brilliant. Every manager is different but you have got to have a good relationship with the manager if they are going to be able to get the best out of you.

“I get along very well with him and he has had faith in me.

“There have been games when I haven’t been scoring and so I was happy that I could repay his faith against Aldershot.”