An enamoured Matt Taylor pointed to the fitness of his players as the key to the club’s recent turnaround in results after Wealdstone continued their National League revival with a comfortable 2-0 home win over Rochdale on Saturday.

Max Kretzschmar’s well-taken finish set the Stones on their way after seven minutes, before Kallum Cesay secured the points, leaving the manager with nothing but praise for his squad.

“I’m extremely happy and very proud of the players. What they did today was they implemented another gameplan we gave them," said Taylor.

"They did it really well against one of the top teams in the league, so I stand here extremely happy with what the players have delivered.

“I felt we were the better team for the majority of the game. We worked on Thursday night around what it (the game) looks like out of possession. When we had the ball, it looked dangerous. We played some excellent passes.

“In the first half, we probably got the press a little bit wrong. We tweaked that at half-time, and I thought that made a big difference for us. In our big moments, if you look at the first goal, it’s an excellent team goal.

"Max Kretzschmar is arriving and doing what he does best - scoring goals. It was a brilliant finish. We spoke at half-time about their high line and exposing that. We did that from a deep runner from midfield.”

The Stones recent form has seen them move out of the relegation places, with four wins from their last five in all competitions, and Taylor stressed that fitness and availability have been key components to their upturn in fortunes.

“Performances at the start of the season were good, but we weren’t at the level, physically, that we are now,” he added.

“Everybody we play against can’t believe we’re not full-time because of the amount of energy we’ve got in the team. We’re going to have to continue with that. It’s nice to be out of the relegation zone. We’re aware now we need to put some good form in, in terms of the league.

“But it’s important for the players to feel some enjoyment from that win, because we’ve had a lot of disappointment this season. Today we were well worthy of three points, and we’ve beaten a very good team, and I think we’ve beaten them convincingly.”

Early season concerns seem to have eased in recent weeks, allowing the Stones to play with more freedom in the final third.

Taylor will hope his side can continue their good run with a trip to Eastleigh on Saturday, before hosting Tamworth just three days later.

Stones have also been handed a trip to Aldershot in the FA Trophy on December 7.