Woodbridge Town manager Lee Elliston heaped the praise on man-of-the-match James Hubbard post-match, describing him as ‘unplayable’.

In an excellent all-round team performance, Hubbard’s sublime hat-trick was ultimately the difference between the two sides, although the scoreline could’ve been far greater with Hubbard hitting the woodwork on three other occasions.

“I thought he was unplayable for 60 minutes,” declared Elliston.

“To be fair, he could’ve had a hat-trick in the first 15 minutes but he was on fire today.

“I spoke to him before the game and spoke about doing things to his ability.

“Sometimes I think he tries to do too much, but his go go gadget legs and his go go gadget head got him three goals today, he was really good.”

Up against two experienced centre-halves in Kevin Hughes and Jake Holman, ‘the beast’ ran them ragged from the first whistle with a display full of energy, power and determination.

“Jay causes centre-halves problems and that’s what I want him doing,” added Elliston.

“I don’t want him running channels, I want him causing centre-halves problems and the two wide men worked well in tandem with him today so Jay could he do his work there.”

Brightlingsea Regent boss James Webster conceded that his side were second best and deserved what they got from the game - nothing.

He said: “I just don’t think we really competed. Woodbridge were up for it, and maybe one or two of our lads thought they were going to come over here and it was just going to be a case of just showing up.

“I’ve got to give credit to Woodbridge - they played really well. They played how we wanted our players to play.”