Crawley striker Izale McLeod believes that working with Dean Saunders can make him a better player.

McLeod scored only the second hat-trick of his career on Saturday to help Reds secure a morale-boosting 5-1 victory over Barnsley at the Checkatrade.com Stadium.

The treble took his tally for the season to 15 with six of those coming in the nine games since Saunders took over as manager on an interim basis following John Gregory’s decision to step down.

The stats are certainly revealing, if perhaps a little skewed by the brief nature of Saunders’ tenure so far. McLeod’s strike rate under Gregory was a goal every 2.55 games while under Saunders it is one every 1.5 games.

Saunders scored 255 goals during his club career and a further 22 for Wales and McLeod admits he has already learned a lot from the former Liverpool striker over the last seven weeks.

McLeod said: “I speak to the gaffer all the time. He pulls me to one side in training and gives me little tips on the positions I can run into, how to score and how he did it.

“That is obviously going to help because he was a really good goalscorer in his day and I think it has shown in recent games. I feel I have been playing well all season but you are always looking to improve."

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