Dennis Rofe likened Dexter Blackstock's second half hat-trick to watching strike legend Jimmy Greaves.

As a youngster, Saints first team coach Rofe would go to White Hart Lane and watch Greaves regularly scoring often for Tottenham - but rarely spectacularly.

The England legend was notorious for being in the right place at the right time to make simple finishes on a prolific basis - just as Blackstock did against Colchester last night.

Rofe said: "As a boy I used to go and watch Tottenham play and saw Jimmy Greaves score goals but I never saw him score spectacular goals.

"He was always there in the six-yard box side footing the ball into the net and, believe me, any goal is a good goal. The 30-yard spectacular goals obviously catch the eye but the ones that are scored inside the six-yard box are just as important."

He added: "We made a couple of changes at half-time and it was a great plus for Dexter to come on and get three goals.

"He's acquitted himself well in the games he's played without getting the goals and this was probably a reward for the other games where he hasn't scored.

"The nature of his game is to compete for balls in the air and get on in the end of crosses and there were a few in the first half were nobody attacked them, so he made a difference in that respect.

"He's a young lad and played against Everton and on Sunday and there's a chance he'll be playing on Saturday.

"Therefore we wanted to rest his legs but brought him on at half- time. He's a young lad who is 18 and it's not so bad if the team's winning and playing free-flowing football and can carry him.

"But it would be unfair to expect Dexter to carry the team, so we wanted to give him a bit of a rest.

"Every footballer should be desperate to play at Highbury and after his goals he should certainly be wanting to play - if you want to do anything in this game you want to pit yourself against the best.

"He's very level-headed, very quiet. I wouldn't say he's an out going lad at all but he's a young lad and he'll learn. It's up to us to keep his feet on the floor and that won't be a problem at all."

Speaking of the tie, Rofe added: "We knew it was going to be a difficult game and we'd done our homework on Colchester.

"We knew they'd be well organised from set-plays and on the first corner they had it dropped down, we didn't defend the second ball very well and they scored.

"It's never easy when you play a team from a lower division and to give them a start after six minutes was very difficult.

"Credit to them, they gave their manager everything and Phil Parkinson should be very proud. It's no consolation when you've lost but they couldn't have given him any more."