Manchester City’s Under-18s striker Matty Warhurst says he's ‘really happy’ to have netted a hat-trick as City earned a 3-1 victory over Stoke at the CFA.

In our first match since the conclusion of the winter break, Ben Wilkinson’s young side raced into an early lead when Warhurst tapped in Farid Alfa-Ruprecht’s low cross and then dispatched a shot from an Ashton Muir chip which set up the brace.

Stoke pulled a goal back five minutes later, when Ali Hayder raced towards an empty net, and rolled the ball over the line after an error from Jack Wint.

However, the 17-year-old was on hand to regain our two goal advantage, after he was first to react to Ben Houston not gathering the ball and fired the ball into the back of the net.

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Warhurst praised the team’s performance against a tough opponent.

“Honestly, I thought the team played really well today,” he said.

“Stoke City are a hard team to play against, they played five at the back which made it difficult, especially for the front line, but I felt like we put a good shift in.

“Especially after Christmas, we’ve had a long break and we got the result that we wanted and needed.”

Of his three goals on Saturday, two of them came from inside the six-yard box.

And he revealed they were the result of tireless work on his positioning on the training pitch.

“Two of my goals were typical striker’s goals, I know that you have got to be in the right position at the right time,” he added.

“The first goal, I was in a position where strikers do get a lot of their goals, the second was a nice volley that went through the keeper’s legs, and the third was a bit fortunate because it came off the goalkeeper and I was there to tap in.

“We work on [positioning] a lot in training, when the wingers have the ball out wide and put in crosses, it’s about getting in the right positions and attacking the goal and always being there.

“If you are getting into those positions religiously, you are going to get chances from it and that’s what happened today, and I’m really happy that I scored three.

“I feel well rested after Christmas and we’ve had a break, so I was ready to go today.”

Warhurst’s treble puts him on 10 goals for the season.

And looking ahead to the second-half of the campaign, he believes he has the confidence to achieve the objectives he’s set himself.

“At the moment in the Under-18s Premier League, I want to try and get top goalscorer, that’s the aim,” he declared.

“As a team, I know we are still in a lot of competitions, so it’ll be about getting as far as we can with the objective of winning, but we’ll do our best.”