Craig Harrison believes his Saints’ squad have answered his call to start winning in style again after they thrashed Cardiff Met on Saturday.

Two goals each for Greg Draper and Alex Darlington, plus Adrian Cieslewicz’s now customary finish, gave TNS all three points from their trip to the capital.

But while clearly delighted, Harrison felt the performance against Bala Town six days previously was better.

“I called in recent weeks for us go back to winning in style and Saturday was definitely that – although I thought we played better against Bala,” said Harrison.

“We took our opportunities on Saturday, when against Bala we came in 1-0 down at half-time having been excellent, and then having a huge second-half performance.

“At Cardiff, we came in three up and the game was dead and buried.

“A great thing for me in both games is that we’ve scored in the 46th or 47th minute, which has either put the game to bed or got us back in it.

“It created momentum to win against Bala and to kill off the Cardiff game. The performance was great, and the lads who came in did well.

“It was a great win – it was very similar to the Bala Town game apart from the fact we took our chances.

“We battered Bala for 30 minutes last week but didn’t take our opportunities. We battered Cardiff Met for 30 minutes and were 3-0 up in that time, meaning the game was over.”

Harrison had words of praise for keeper Andy Wycherley, his teenage back-up option for keeper Paul Harrison, as he stepped into the breach to keep a clean sheet.

The youngster was called into the team on Friday after skipper Harrison limped out of training – and his boss thinks the 18-year-old has shown enough already to have a promising career ahead of him.

“Paul picked up an injury in training on Friday so Andy did really well,” he added.

“He came for one or two crosses, made a couple of great saves and his distribution was excellent. His all-round performances was excellent.

“He’s a very good young goalkeeper – young players can be very up and down as their consistency levels aren’t always there.

“He’s 18, which is young for a keeper, but he’s played against the top three teams in the Nathaniel MG Cup.

“He’s not coming in blind, not knowing what the situation is – he’s done well before and that’s partly why we let Chris Mullock go on loan and then permanently because we have a potentially good keeper in Andy.”