Hucknall Town manager Andy Ingle was full of praise for his players after they secured their first league victory of the season and his tenure on Saturday (6 August).

The Yellows ran out 4-0 winners over St Andrews after an excellent second half performance which included a six minute spell that saw them score three goals.

This result went some way to atoning for the disappointment of a week ago, when Hucknall dropped points away at Holwell Sports in a 3-3 draw on the opening day of the season.

The Melton Mowbray based side only narrowly avoided relegation last season, finishing fourth from bottom and three points clear of the drop, and many had tipped Hucknall to enjoy a comfortable afternoon there. However, this proved to be far from the case as they threw away a 3-1 lead late on and finished the match clinging on for a share of the spoils.

Ingle was appointed by Hucknall at the conclusion of last season when Andy Graves resigned from the post following defeat in the play-off semi-finals bringing to an end his nine-year reign at the club.

The new manager was unsurprisingly delighted to register his first competitive win as Hucknall boss.

Speaking exclusively to Hucknall Nub News, pitch side shortly after the full-time whistle had sounded, he said: "It's definitely sunk in, I'm really pleased with it, I just couldn't ask for anymore from the lads today, we just asked for a performance, more desire and we got everything I asked for; really pleased with it."

Asked about his message to the players at half time and the reasons for the big improvement in performance after the break he said: "I just said to them we can't do what we did last week which was we switched off. I just think we came out full of energy and we just took the game to them.

"One of the ways we want to play is to get people forward quick and get the dangerous people on the ball, we've got to be brave when we're on the ball we don't want to slow the process down.

"It's something we've worked on all pre-season, it's usually when we lose the ball then we've got a lot of work to do but we worked on that on Wednesday (in training). Everything that we did on Wednesday showed in the game today, I'm more than pleased with what the lads did."

New signing Kieran Knight scored a brace in the game and is a player that Ingle has worked with previously, firstly during a football and education programme when he was at Eastwood and then at under-19 and under-21 level.

Of the goals Knight scored, Ingle said: "I've been watching him do that since he was 16 and I still can't understand how he can hit a ball into the top corner at an angle like that. He never looks at the goal, he just knows where it is and everything goes through the ball.

"He can be unstoppable when he's like that and that's what we're relying on. I think we're lucky to get him but because of my association with him as well I hoped that would work with what we spoke about during pre-season and to be fair he's settled in well and he's mixing in well with the lads now."

Despite a challenging first half the togetherness of the Hucknall players shone through as they pulled together to overcome a scrappy start to play some thrilling football and ultimately end up easing to victory.

Commenting on the mood in and around the club, Ingle added: "There's a good bond with the group at the minute. And this is what I've tried to promote. It doesn't matter who makes a mistake or where it comes from, how it happens, I've said to them if you don't stay together, you're not going to perform.

"I don't want the players getting on each other's backs, it needs to be encouragement all the time; I removed certain things that I saw that I didn't want them doing.

"I can't tell you how much it means to me as a person at my age to get a job like this because you sometimes think it's gone by you to actually take a first team at this level or as good as these lads are and at as good a club as this is.

"And then to be asked to do it you've just got to give it your best. I've said to the lads I'm going to give it my best and I just want you to do the same and that's what I've been asking them."

Hucknall have a good opportunity to quickly build on this victory as they are back in action again on Wednesday (10 August) when they welcome Dunkirk to Watnall Road for their second home league game of the season.