Troy Parrott is confident his hat-trick in AZ Alkmaar's spectacular rout of Ajax in the Dutch Cup will spark a return to form after a recent lull on the goalscoring front.
For the second time in the space of three months, Parrott scored a hat-trick in front of his international manager, Heimir Hallgrimsson travelling to Alkmaar to watch his striker in the last-16 tie.
The Dubliner opened the scoring after three minutes, slotting home on the rebound after a long range shot was parried into his path. He doubled his tally after the half hour mark, chasing a long clearance and burying an early shot past the keeper Viteszlav Jaros - former of St Patrick's Athletic.
He made it 5-0 and completed the hat-trick with 10 minutes remaining, tapping into an empty net after a ball came back off the post.
Parrott has nine goals from 12 appearances in the Eredivisie, though much of the goals in the early games of the season, with just two in his past six outings.
"I feel like I needed that, to be fair, I think just to get going," he told ESPN.
"I scored against Fortuna Sittard, but there haven't been many goals in the games before that. And obviously on Saturday I didn't score against Vollendam as well. I'm always looking to score, so to get an easy one is really nice.
"For me, they're the best ones. Just to be in the position to score the goals is the most important thing for me. it's about being in the position to score goals. If I'm not there, then the ball doesn't fall to me. It's just as simple as that. It's about having the mentality to always be in the box.
"I think scoring a hat-trick is probably one of the best feelings as a striker. So to do it in the way that we won also is really special. I think it's always nice to score a hat-trick, especially against Ajax, it's a big club, it's a good team. To beat them the way that we did today is really good
"Considering the last two, three, four years, we always seem to get good results against Ajax. But I think for us as a group, it's about trying to keep these performances consistent. We haven't been able to do that up until now. Hopefully, this is a boost for us to try and do that more."
AZ are seeking to return to the Dutch Cup final for the second year running. Last year, Parrott's second half penalty looked like being the winning goal until Go Ahead Eagles were awarded a penalty deep in injury-time, and then proceeded to win the eventual penalty shootout.
