Carshalton Athletic striker Nathaniel Pinney has more reasons than most to be back on a football pitch scoring goals.

The former Crystal Palace academy man is finding his goalscoring boots at Colston Avenue having hit three goals in three games.

Unfortunately, two of those games ended in defeat, including last night’s 3-2 reverse at Cray Wanderers, leaving the Robins fourth from the bottom of the Ryman League Premier Division.

After being released by Palace in the summer, the 21-year-old spent time at Barnet and Woking before a family tragedy brought his career to an abrupt halt – but it was also the catalyst that rebooted his love of football.

And Pinney has not looked back since Robins’ boss Tommy Williams gave him a call and invited him to train with the team.

“I trained with Barnet for a couple of weeks and then went to Woking over pre-season. But then my mum passed away in August and I dropped out of the game,” Pinney said.

“My head was all over the place and I didn’t really know what was going to happen.

“But speaking to my family and friends, helped me through, helped me rebuild my confidence and I am forever grateful to them.

“Tommy got my number off some of the boys down at Carshalton, he called and offered me a chance and I said to myself, why not, let’s get back into things.

“Mum would not have wanted me to quit football, and now I have to concentrate, keep my head down and get the goals.”

Pinney has joined a team struggling to maintain any consistency on the pitch with heavy defeats – 6-3 at Concord Rangers in the league and 6-1 at King’s Lynn in the FA Trophy – sandwiching an impressive 2-0 league win over high-flying Lowestoft, in which Pinney was on target.

He said: “Even though the team is not doing as well as it can, I am just going out there to score goals and I am confident results will pick up.

“We have a big strong heart in the team and the results will start coming. It won’t happen overnight. Tommy is working so hard behind the scenes and as a team we’re right behind what he is doing.”

Carshalton go to Wealdstone this weekend.