STOKE Poges Saints chairman Daren Colomb has praised first team manager Ross Gibson for turning their fortunes around this season.

Stoke made a slow start to the campaign and found themselves second bottom in Division One until a turnaround in form sees them competing for a top-three finish this year.

The Saints beat Iver Heath Rovers Reserves 4-0 at the Bells Hill Recreation Ground thanks to a Andrew Gonzalez hat-trick plus a Matt Durden strike on Saturday to leave them second in the table.

“We had a little bit of a tough start to the season because we were still looking to get players together early on,” Colomb told the Observer.

“Our manager Ross has done a really good job because he’s had it tough with injuries. He and the team have coped fantastically well.

“Ross has drilled them really well and the team has responded to him. They work really hard for him and are starting to reap the rewards.”

He continued: “It’s exciting to see if we can get there (top three) that was our goal since the start of the season. For us, it was a good win on Saturday and keeps us in the promotion race.

“Frontline have probably ran away with it, it’s theirs to lose. They’re nailed on to win the title and the rest are scrambling for second place, beating each other.

Slough Observer:

PHOTO: Matt Durden (green and black) scored a goal as Stoke Poges Saints won 4-0 on Saturday.

“It will be between Richings Park Reserves and Iver Heath. We’ve still got to play them both so we will have a say on second place.

“We will look forward to the rest of the season, see what other teams do, what that brings us.”

Commenting on the win on Saturday, Colomb said: “We had a really good performance.

“We came out in the first half and put them under real pressure early on. Our midfield worked really hard to close theirs down which really helped.

"Within the first couple of minutes we took the lead and just kept on piling on the pressure with missed chances. We could have been three goals ahead before half-time but it was 2-0 after 40 minutes.

"Iver were really strong in the second half and came after us. Their manager obviously gave a great half-time team talk.

"We had to withstand and soak up pressure and they were unlucky not to get a couple themselves.

"On the break, we made it three after 65 minutes, and the fourth goal came from a corner, a bit of a scramble to put the game beyond them."

He added: "We were looking to beat them because Iver really hammered us in the cup before. We were really up for the game and prepared well because they hammered us the last time."