Hanover striker Charlie Rowland is on the brink of setting a world record.

The 19-year-old footballer from Hollingbury has scored a hat-trick in all of the past four weekends and another in Hanover's next game against Portslade Athletic will earn him a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

Charlie is the leading scorer for table-topping Hanover in the Brighton and Hove District League Division Two after trebles against Southern Rangers, Coversure Athletic and Autopaints. And the prolific forward also stuck four past CCK in the cup.

Modest Charlie said: "I couldn't really have missed a lot of the goals I have scored. It has been a team effort and we have had a good start to the season. I have got momentum and confidence from scoring each week. They are a brilliant bunch of lads. One of the goals I got against CCK, I beat about six players and scored. "

Charlie has always been a natural goalscorer, he once got 48 goals in one season for Rottingdean under-14s.

Park Life broke the news to Charlie that he was a step away from a place in the record books.

The striker said: "I was very surprised, I thought I might be in with a chance of setting a new Brighton league record, but not a world record."

Charlie can expect the full support of his team-mates in his quest for glory.

He said: "They have all said that they will do their best to help me get a hat-trick. I shall be taking penalties and I'm enjoying the pressure.

"We have a couple of celebrations lined up but the one we shall hopefully use is the West Brom jig that Lee Hughes used to do, where all the players swung their arms in the air."

Charlie's only regret is that manager Jeff Freeland, who has worked so hard to make the side successful, will not be there to see it. Freeland is jetting off to Florida on holiday but the Hanover boss insisted he will be on the phone immediately to find out the score.

He said: "The holiday is almost secondary now. I've called round the players and told them to do everything in their power to help Charlie score. I'll leave them to it. We are confident he'll do it. I can see him going goal crazy, but first and foremost we want to win."

Freeland is delighted to have the lethal striker in his line-up.

He said: "Charlie is prolific. He has that knack of being in the right place at the right time. He plays up front with a big old fashioned centre forward who wins a lot of knock downs."

But Freeland is keeping Charlie's feet on the ground and amazingly the top scorer could soon find himself on the bench.

Freeland said: "We do have a rotation system because we have so many players and everyone will have a spell as substitute."

The Guiness Book of Records' Joanna Crawford told Park Life that if Charlie gets a hat-trick it will be a world record. Spokesperson Stewart Newport added: "For sporting records we go to the governing bodies for official verification and we look to them for guidance. We need assistance and statistics from them to confirm the record."

The man Charlie is hoping to better is Masashi Nakayama who scored four hat-tricks for Jubilo Iwata in the Japanese League in 1998 against Cerezo Osaka (5), Sanfrecce Hiroshima (4), Avispa Fukuoka (4), and Consadole Sapporo (3).