BOSS Mark Cooper was delighted with hat-trick hero Ben Gladwin as the midfielder fired Town to a 4-2 win at Rochdale.

Gladwin’s triple and Michael Smith’s strike all came in the first half to lock-in Town’s play-off spot.

The only negatives were Ian Henderson’s penalty, where Gladwin was harshly considered to have fouled Andrew Cannon, and Nathan Thompson’s late own goal.

Otherwise, Town ruthlessly punished Rochdale’s profligacy in the first half, with Gladwin to the fore.

The former Southern League man was the outstanding player on the pitch, adding lethal finishing and poise to his nifty footwork to put Dale to the sword.

Post-game, Cooper was quick to lavish praise on Gladwin, even if he did manage to get in a tongue-in-cheek dig at the midfielder’s previous goalscoring exploits.

“I’ve been ‘bantering’ him for days and weeks that he doesn’t score enough goals for the positions he gets himself in,” said Cooper.

“I asked him before the game ‘any chance of a goal?’ He certainly rammed that back down my throat tonight.

“He makes his own space. He’s got numerous trick and stepovers, chops, Cruyff turns; whatever you want. He’s another exciting player we have at the football club.

“He wasn’t the scheduled penalty-taker. When he’s on two and we’re 3-0 up, I think he has every right to take it. It was a perfect penalty. Maybe if he’d been taking them all season, we might be second in the league.”

However, Cooper was disappointed only to finish the game with a two-goal advantage, with his side having a couple more decent opportunities to score after the break.

“It should never, ever be 4-2. It should have been 10. We’ll take the three points and move on,” he added.

“I had a little bit of a pop at the players in the dressing room. We shouldn’t ever be conceding two goals when we are in that position. We should controlling the game and pressing home the advantage.

“For us to only be two goals up at the end of the game is a travesty.”

Despite those negatives Cooper did manage a smile when talk switched to events at Deepdale, where Gillingham snatched a 2-2 draw.

“We have to look at the positives. I believe somebody’s had a stumble in the promotion race. If so, we keep going and move on to Yeovil.”