TWO goals in his first three games, but Thomas Butler has had to wait a long time for his next strike.

After netting on his debut against Swindon last April, then again two weeks later at Colchester, it was only on Saturday that Butler bagged his next.

Arguably Pool's most impressive performer this season, the Dubliner secured a 2-1 win at Port Vale with a 20-yard shot.

Picking the ball up on the flank, Butler's strong run took him within sight of goal and he secured Pool's fifth win of the season.

"There was a bit of a pause after the shot,'' he said. "I didn't know if the keeper had pushed it out or what, but I saw Jon Daly coming towards me, so I knew it was in.

"I was half expecting it to be ruled out or something like that, but it was very pleasing.

"I've waited long enough to score this season, I missed one from something like ten yards last week so I had to redeem myself.

"I got two goals in my early games here and I thought I'd cracked it, I'm on a good run. But then it dried up straight away and hopefully now I can carry it on and get a few more.''

Boss Martin Scott revealed that Butler cut a frustrated figure at half-time. He was instrumental in Pool's bright start to the game, but had little reward.

"Out wide it can get quite frustrating at times because you don't always see the ball,'' he admitted. "You can do a lot of running and tracking but get no reward. We started really well and the manager said before the game that it was important we did.

"We had so many chances, but nothing really came of most of them. One day we will play someone and get three or four goals in the first-half. I don't think they could have complained if we did on Saturday because we created a lot of opportunities.

"I hope we are starting to show what we are capable of now. We are a bit of a Jeckyll and Hyde team, brilliant against a good team and we then play a lesser team and we lose or don't play as well.

"We need the consistency and we needed on Saturday to make it back to back wins. Hopefully we can keep this going on Tuesday against Gillingham.''

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