A Mitchell Weiss hat-trick inspired Kings Langley to their fourth straight league win on Saturday as they beat Ware 4-2 to move up to fifth in Southern League Division One Central.

The hosts were made to battle for the victory though, as they twice had to come from behind before Weiss took centre stage in the latter stages of the contest.

Ware stunned Kings with a simple goal within the first 30 seconds as Rod Young took the ball to the right corner flag and delivered an unchallenged low cross that Elliot Bailey swept into the net.

A bitterly cold gale-force wind was considerate enough to drop on kick off and both sides endeavoured to play attractive football as the game settled down after its dramatic start and Weiss went close with a shot on the turn and a failed one-on-one with Joe Simmonds.

Langley’s pressure told just after the half hour when another Dean Hitchcock corner posed questions in a crowded box and a towering Stuart Deaton header provided the answer.

The second half opened with all to play for, but Kings appeared to have failed to learn their lesson when Jimmy Hartley received the ball wide on the left, twisted and turned and unleashed a precision shot that was perfectly paced inside the near post five minutes after the restart.

Kings’ response was quicker on this occasion as Mo Shariff, making his debut, set Weiss free on the right wing and his pace put him one-on-one again with Simmonds, whom he calmly nutmegged to draw his side level again.

Ben Crilley cleared another Weiss effort off the line shortly after, but for the next 25 minutes the outcome was finely balanced.

The decisive influence proved to be Weiss, who seemed to get faster and stronger as the game progressed and when a looping Ryan Plowright cross appeared to be beyond him, he turned and hit a stunning volley over his shoulder into the top corner of the net.

This would have been enough to secure the points but the striker was not finished yet as a left-wing diagonal through ball from Hitchcock enabled the Kings number nine to beat the offside trap again and stroke home his third with two minutes remaining.