Manager Courtney Belford praised his Hinckley side’s “superb” performance against Saffron Dynamo that yielded a seventh straight win.
AFC scored three times in each half to equal a club record for consecutive league wins, matching a run from November 2014 to January 2015.
Chris Camwell and Tyson Knight both bagged braces at St John’s Park with Charlie Evans and debutant Dom Alleyne also on the scoresheet.
And Belford said his side set the tempo from the first whistle. He said: “We said not to worry about the pitch, it was a bit sticky. But we said to play with that tempo and desire, that ferocity to press teams, move the ball quickly and land on second balls. Then we’ll be tough to beat.
“We’ve got quality all over the pitch, so as long as we match teams for work rate then nine times out of ten we’ll be on the good side of a result.
“Little bits of brilliance like that from Chris Camwell kill the game off after ten minutes and it’s ours to lose.
“I’m pleased for the lads because we’ve worked hard. The ball dropped for us in a couple of places but if you work hard you get luck.”
He touched on the 5-1 humbling at the hands of Hucknall Town as a defining moment in the season. It was Hinckley’s last defeat, at the start of October, and Belford said his side’s reaction has been exactly what he wanted.
“We asked the lads for that reaction after Hucknall. It was humbling, it made us think about a few things.
“We questioned desire and commitment after Hucknall and they’ve proven that they’ve got it.
“We said we wanted seven wins before Kimberley and that’s what we’ve been able to do. We’ll go into that one, a tough game away, full of confidence to get a result.”
Hinckley are among the leading scorers in the country at this level, but Tom Weale remains at the top of the goalscoring charts on 11.
But 11 players have scored four or more goals this term and Belford is delighted with the way everyone is chipping in.
“We keep harping back that we don’t need that out and out number nine that will get all those goals.
“But when your wide men are scoring, that helps massively. Charlie (Evans) has scored 10 in 12, that’s some return. He can play in different positions too.
“We don’t want to count on one person.”
He admitted frustration at the goal his side gave away, but conceded that it can happen every now and again if his side lose concentration on the ball.
“We gave it to them.
“We tried to play, got caught and pressed when we should have delayed them. But no taking away from the scorer, it was an unbelievable finish.
“We’ve got to make sure that concentration levels are better. But we won’t hammer people for playing, because that’s what we want them to do.
“If we got it right every time we wouldn’t be at this level of football.”
