Chester FC boss Steve Burr praised Ross Hannah's 'absolute quality' in front of goal following his hat-trick in the 4-1 defeat of Torquay United .
Burr revealed after the game he had given the 29-year-old striker a target of 15 goals before Christmas, which he has achieved after notching 11 times in his last nine appearances.
Hannah has soared up the National League scoring charts thanks to that run and his manager has challenged him to keep on finding the net.
Burr said: "I set him a target before Christmas to get 15 and the first thing he said was 'that's 15 gaffer' and I said 'well I want 20 now'.
"He's in a rich vein of form. I thought his finishing was absolute quality. He probably missed the easiest of his chances where he lobbed the keeper and it came back off post.
"I said to him at half-time that this was the day where he had a great opportunity to get three."
The win over Torquay ended a run of five league games without a win for the Blues, who took the lead inside 15 seconds when Hannah fired home the quickest goal in the National League this season.
Chester spurned a series of goalscoring opportunities before Ryan Higgins made it 2-0 on 38 minutes and Hannah's bending free-kick gave them a three goal lead at the interval.
Read: Jim Green's verdict as the Blues claimed a thumping win over the Gulls
Andre Wright pulled one back for the Gulls with a fortunate strike out of nothing in the 68th minute but Hannah completed his hat-trick four minutes later.
Chester could and should have had more with substitute John Rooney having a penalty saved and hitting the post on the rebound while Danny Hattersley's header struck the woodwork late on.
Burr, who returned to a 3-5-2 formation with Higgins and Johnny Hunt impressing as wing backs, was delighted with his side's performance, which sends them into the Christmas fixtures with renewed confidence.
He said: "We've been working all week on a different sort of shape but I always say it's not about shapes or systems, it's about players and I thought every one of them played very well and not only have we scored four goals, but we've created a lot of chances and could have had a few more so I'm pleased to go into this period now with a convincing win.
"I think winning always gives you confidence. There were still areas where I felt we could have done a lot better last week and that's what we've been looking at this week in training.
"We've been a lot better and we need to show more of that but this time last year Torquay were one of the better sides to come here and they're struggling with certain things this season and it just shows how quickly things can turn around.
"I think you'll find that teams in this division will always have a spell in some part of the game. The goal was a bit lucky that they got but in saying that we reacted really quickly and got ourselves another one at the other end.
"I thought all through the 90 minutes we kept pressing and it would have been nice to get more than four but in the end it was a really convincing win."
