1:14pm Monday 22nd March 2010
RICKIE Lambert reflected on his first Saints hat-trick and admitted: “I didn’t think I had the best of games!”
Lambert’s second half treble against MK Dons meant he passed the 30-goal barrier for a season for the first time in his career.
Lambert now has 29 Saints goals in 46 league and cup starts, plus one for Bristol Rovers in his only game for the Gas on the opening day of the season. And with virtually a quarter of the campaign left – at least 11 games – he has no intention of packing in there.
He said: “I wasn’t feeling the best actually.
“I felt fine physically obviously but I didn’t think that I’d had the best of games.
“It’s weird, sometimes you can be on top of your form and not even get a shot in.
“But it was one of those days for me where I hit the back of the net and I’m just thankful for that.
“It means a lot.
“You don’t score many hattricks in your career so I treasure each one that I score and to get my first one for Southampton is brilliant.”
It was only the fourth time Lambert had belted a hat-trick.
Two were scored for Bristol Rovers last season – a four-goal show at home to Southend and a triple in a 3-0 win at Hereford almost 12 months ago to the day.
His first professional triple was for Macclesfield in a 4-1 League Two victory over Luton way back in November 2001.
Lambert’s performance at stadium: mk meant he had beaten last season’s 29-goal haul, which was his previous best in a campaign.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever scored 30 in a season so it’s going well for me,”
he said. “Hopefully there’s some more to come.”
Alan Pardew said after the game he believes Lambert could go on to become a legend at the club.
Pardew also claimed that Lambert’s hat-trick goal, a spectacular halfvolleyed lob from 40 yards, came as no surprise to him.
“It’s brilliant for the manager to say that,” said Lambert.
“It just shows you how much confidence he’s got in me.
“I’ll be made up if I can get anywhere near those kind of players.
“It’s nice that he’s got confidence in me. I’ve tried it a few times this season and got nowhere near that, so it’s nice to see one of them finally go into the back of the net.
“I had an idea before the game that he would come off his line so I had an inkling that if I had a chance I would hit it early. It bounced up perfectly, so I thought ‘why not?’”
Lambert ended his worst league goal drought for Saints at MK Dons. Prior to the game, he had gone three League One matches without scoring – the first time he had gone that long without finding the back of the net.
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