JOSH Hancock continued his ‘out of this world’ response to losing his Altrincham place earlier this season as Phil Parkinson’s side returned to winning ways in impressive style at Boston United on Saturday.

Alty’s attacking midfielder had to settle for a place on the bench four games running in September and October but he has roared back since with no fewer than nine goals to move into third place in the National League North scoring charts, alongside team-mate Jordan Hulme, on 11 overall.

Hancock and Hulme were both on target at Boston as Alty not only returned to the play-off positions with an impressive 2-1 win but banished the memory of only two points from four games over the Christmas and New Year period.

"Josh has been out of this world ever since he came back from being left out of the team," said Alty boss Parkinson.

"We’ve been having a bit of a joke with him in the changing room about how it seemed to have the desired effect.

"But the fact is we didn’t just sit him on the bench, we gave him a lot of information about what we expected from him, and he took it on board.

"He is a clever, bright lad and he has certainly scaled the heights since.

"In fact, he has probably exceeded expectations, because he has reached levels I haven’t seen from him before.

"I hope our fans can take heart from the way we played, as well as the result, and the fact we are back in the play-off positions.

"We could have been five up by half time and certainly should have been out of sight, but that’s what we’re all about – playing attacking football, not just trying to stop the opposition.

"The second half was always going to be tougher but full credit to the players.

"People have questioned whether they can defend, but they showed they can."

Alty, who are away to league leaders Chorley on Saturday, hope to bring in at least one striker on loan in the next few days.