Marcus Dinanga continued to repay Phil Parkinson’s faith in him and earned a glowing tribute from the Altrincham manager after the Robins made it three wins in four games at The J.Davidson Stadium on Saturday.

Dinanga arrived at Moss Lane for an undisclosed fee 16 months ago, only to find himself loaned out to Kidderminster Harriers and then Dartford after failing to make the expected impact in Alty colours.

Parkinson never wavered in his belief that the 25-year old would come good, and the evidence was there for all to see at the weekend, as the in-form frontrunner rounded off a thumping 4-1 Alty win against Dorking Wanderers with his third goal in as many games.

“We were superb at both ends of the pitch today, which hasn’t always been the case this season, and it was good to see Marcus showing what a top striker he is,” said the Alty boss, whose side have now climbed to 16th in the table, just three points behind 12th-placed Southend United. “The perseverance we have shown with him is paying off, and he is getting fitter and stronger all the time.

“He tortured their centre-half today and thoroughly deserved his goal. The chances we created and the way he was playing, he could easily have ended up with a hat-trick.

“It was imperative we backed up the midweek win at Gateshead, and I thought the lads were really positive in the way they went about executing the game plan.

“I think people could see we are a good team earlier on, when we were striving for that first win, but we are finishing sides off now and being a bit more clinical, and results are coming as a consequence.

“But we know we can’t afford to take our foot off the gas for one training session, let alone one match, or we’ll be looking over our shoulder. We don’t want that - we want to be looking up, not down.”

Alty won 4-0 at Sandbach United in the Cheshire Senior Cup first round on Tuesday night with goals from Zak Goodson, Aaron Bennett (two) and Jordan Hulme.

They hit the FA Cup trail on Saturday, with a home tie against Gateshead (3pm).