Birthday boy hat-trick hero Callum Morton has revealed that the seeds of Braintree Town’s victory against Barnet were laid in the game plan set out for them.

The West Bromwich Albion loanee struck twice from the penalty spot and once from open play alongside an Ifeanyi Allen goal late on as the Iron beat the Bees 4-0 for a morale boosting Vanarama National League victory.

The early sending off of Barnet keeper Mark Cousins – after a foul on Morton – helped Braintree’s cause but it was a dominant display from them where the three points were fully deserved.

That red card for Cousins came about after Morton pressured him into a mistake and he revealed that their energetic pressing game was laid out for them by boss Hakan Hayrettin and assistant manager Danny Searle.

Morton, who was celebrated his birthday by scoring his hat-trick, said: “It's my 19th birthday and I couldn’t have asked for a much better day to be honest.

“I got the match ball – the first of my career and my first in senior football, so I was delighted.

“It was a good day all round.

“The sending off (of Cousins) helped us early, but regardless of whether he got sent off or not, it would have been one-nil to us then.

“So we got off to a really good start and that helped.

“We had a game plan as we knew Barnet would try to play and that was based on us pressing the defenders and the goalkeeper.

“That paid off in the first couple of minutes as it got the keeper sent off and we went on from there.

“We could have won by even more; it was the best performance since I’ve been here.

“It could have been seven, eight or nine that we scored.

“We missed a few that could have helped with the goal difference given the position we’re in, but we’ll take four-nil every day of the week.”