MANAGER Gary Hackett was delighted with how his “professional” Stourbridge side overcame Halesowen’s derby challenge to stay top of the Southern League Central.

The Glassboys took the Boxing Day bragging rights with a 3-0 victory at the Grove thanks to a brace from Luke Benbow and a Kaiman Anderson strike.

Hackett said: “I think we more than deserved the three points.

“From the previous game we lost Jordaan Brown, Callum Powell and James Wren. It was a tough ask of Niall Maher to come in but he kept a clean sheet, Aris Christophorou came in at left-back and I thought he was very good today and Kaiman Anderson worked extremely hard on the right and chipped in with a goal, so we’ve got to be very pleased.

“Results have been mixed against Halesowen but it has been good to come here today and take three points.

“There’s a massive crowd here again today. It is a massive local derby and they’ve got nothing to lose playing here today so we’re very pleased with a very professional team performance.”

On derby day double hero Benbow, Hackett added: “I had a chat with Luke three or four weeks ago and I said ‘you’re a centre forward and you’re spending too much time in areas where you’re not going to score goals. Get back to playing down the centre of the pitch and things will happen for you’.

“Since then I think he’s score seven in eight or something like that and when Luke’s on it, he’s as good as anything around.”