Crewe Alexandra's Donaldson thrilled with hat-trick

Donaldson had previously scored hat-tricks for York and Hibernian

Clayton Donaldson says he was delighted to score his first hat-trick for Crewe in their 4-1 win against Burton Albion.

"It was nice of the manager [Dario Gradi] to keep me on and give me that chance to get the hat-trick," the 27-year-old striker told BBC Radio Stoke.

"It's the first one I've ever scored in the Football League in England and hopefully it's the first of many."

Donaldson increased his tally for the season to 19 goals as the Alex won for the first time since 25 January.

Gradi's side had failed to win any of their previous six matches in League Two, but got off to the perfect start on Saturday as they led 2-0 after just seven minutes through goals from Donaldson and strike partner Shaun Miller.

A Donaldson penalty made it 3-0 at the interval, and although Wolves loanee Sam Winnall scored a late consolation for the Brewers, Donaldson completed a comfortable victory with a close-range finish in stoppage time.

It was good to stop the rot - we haven't had the best results. Clayton Donaldson

It was the third hat-trick of the striker's career, having netted three times in games for Blue Square Bet Premier side York against Cambridge in March 2007 and in the SPL for Hibernian against Kilmarnock later that year.

After an awful February in which Crewe collected just one point from a possible 18, the Alex have ground to make up on the top seven.

"It was good to stop the rot," admitted Donaldson. "We haven't had the best results.

"Three points are much-needed anyway at this stage of the season, but we'd fallen behind in the league as well so I think we needed that really."

Crewe travel to Macclesfield on Tuesday before facing leaders Chesterfield at home on Saturday.