AARON Hodge and Nick Layton shared the goals as Kington Town powered to an impressive 5-1 victory at Newport in Division Two of the West Midlands (Regional)?League.

The lively Hodge collected his third hat-trick of the season to take his goalscoring tally to 17 since joining from AFC?Ludlow in late September while Layton backed him up with a brace in a real boost to Kington’s promotion bid.

The victory made it 18 league games without defeat for the table-topping Yellows, who switched from the Herefordshire League last summe.

“We made a few changes and we were back to something like the form of a few months ago," said Kington manager Shaun Harris.

“Though we have still been getting the results, we haven’t been quite on it in recent weeks. This was a much better performance.”

Daniel Stack came back into the side to partner Aaron Hodge up front, with Layton switching to the right wing from where he tucked in to open the scoring from a Dale Hodge assist.

Dale Hodge then set up brother Aaron for the second and Layton headed goal number three before half-time from a Jordan Cooper cross.

Aaron Hodge completed his treble with two typical second-half strikes as his pace and movement proved too hot for Newport, with the deflated home side pulling back a late consolation.

Neither Darlaston nor FC?Stafford, Kington’s two major promotion rivals, were in action last weekend but outsiders Warstone Wanderers suffered a surprise 2-1 defeat at Wolverhampton United.