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Tom Nichols says Bristol Rovers' strikers need to do more to help out Jonson Clarke-Harris.

Clarke-Harris led the line superbly since signing from Coventry in January, and his goals in the second half of last season went a long way to keeping Rovers in League One.

He quickly became Rovers' key man, with the Gas' other strikers failing to find the net on a consistent basis.

Yet Clarke-Harris has missed Rovers' pre-season trip to Ireland through injury and it is currently unclear how long the striker will be out for.

It has given Rovers' other strikers the chance to lay down a marker for a first-team place and Nichols scored a hat-trick in the 7-0 demolition of St Mochta's in Dublin yesterday evening.

The loan signing of Tyler Smith has added even more competition for places among Rovers' strikers - but Nichols insists this is a good thing.

"More competition is good for everyone," he told the club's Twitter page.

"We're all scoring as well, which is good for everyone and good for the squad.

"We can all push ourselves on - Jonno did a lot of that work towards the back end of last season, he really helped us out and we need to pitch in more really.

"It's good that we're all firing early doors."

Nichols was pleased to bag a hat-trick on Wednesday and says he needs to hit the ground running this season.

He said: "I set myself a personal target to score more goals in pre-season.

"In the last few years I haven't scored many there.

"So it's pleasing to have scored a few early doors and I need to keep doing that."