John Akinde was pleased with his performance on Saturday, as the striker netted a first-half hat-trick to help fire Barnet to a resounding 5-0 win over Altrincham at The Hive.
The hat-trick ensured that Akinde doubled his goals tally for the new campaign in a single afternoon, taking him to an impressive haul of six from the first eleven games of the season. The Bees’ number nine is refusing to set himself any goals targets however, and is simply focused on firing in as many as possible for the good of the team:
“It’s always good to score goals as that is what you are in the team to do so it was a good feeling, but the most important thing is to keep on winning so that we stay top of the league, which is obviously what we want to do all season if we can.
“Me scoring goals will obviously help that so I hope to get a few more, but I just try to score as many goals as I can and see where I am at the end of the season.”
Despite recently losing his regular strike partner Charlie MacDonald to injury, Akinde is excited by playing alongside the other attacking talents at the club, including player-coach Jon Nurse and new arrival Sam Hoskins:
“We’ve got Jon Nurse who has come in and he has been excellent. I’ve played with Jon Nurse a couple of times now and I’ve played with him before at Dagenham and we have always had that good relationship.
“We’ve signed Sam Hoskins as well who I am looking forward to playing with. Sam looked sharp when he came on so it will be nice to play with him as well. Hopefully they can both come in and continue to do a good job which I am sure they can.”
Two of Akinde’s goals came from the penalty spot on Saturday, and having seen his captain assume the responsibilities so far this season, as well as handing the ball to Lee Cook to complete a hat-trick of his own against Dartford on Bank Holiday Monday, Akinde admits that it was nice to take over the mantle himself at the weekend:
“It was nice to step up myself. I have always wanted to be on the penalties since I came to the club so it is good to get my chance and show that I can put them away. With both of them I just chose my spot and went for it.
“I think it only makes sense for me to take them over full-time now! But no, there are plenty of other people that can take them but for the time being I am happy to take them and hopefully keep scoring them.”
