Luisma Villa was a happy man on Saturday evening, after scoring a goal during a Man of the Match performance that helped Barnet beat Southport 4-0 at The Hive and move eight points clear at the top of the Vanarama Conference.

Opening up after the game in his native Spanish, the playmaker reflected on a good day all round for the Bees:

“The truth is that it was a very important victory because we came into this game on the back of a fairly bad run where we have dropped some points.

“Personally I was very pleased with the goal, it is always nice to score and this season I have certainly been more prolific in front of goal than I have ever been.

“It was important mentally to record a win after a couple of fairly bad games. It was great to draw a line under that and gain some more confidence in order to get back to playing the type of football that we have been all season.”

However, despite scoring the first of three goals during the closing ten minutes, the Spaniard admitted that it had been far from an easy afternoon as Southport pushed Barnet all the way:

“It wasn’t always pretty, but winning was the only thing that mattered and that is what we did.

“Graham stack made some crucial ssaves when it was still 1-0, one from a chance down the right where he tipped it wide and another where he palmed a long-range shot over.

“As you say, the scoreline may have been 4-0 but we had to dig deep during that second half.”

Luisma finished by paying tribute to his teammate Sam Muggleton, who scored his first senior goal deep into stoppage time to round off the victory and get one over on his housemate in the process:

“I’m also very happy for Muggsy! He is a kid who works so hard during training and is very humble. When you see people working so hard and then good things happen to them like scoring a goal, it is a wonderful thing.

“We have spoken a few times in the house about it and have a bet going where he promised that if I reach 20 goals for the season he’ll buy me dinner and I turned around and said to him if you even score one goal then I’ll buy you dinner – so I guess now I have to put my money where my mouth is!”

To watch the full interview on Barnet Player, click here.