Bromsgrove Rovers 3 Sutton Coldfield Town 6

Chris Keogh has seen his Sutton Coldfield Town side dubbed "Jekyll and Hyde" more often than Christopher Lee has starred in a horror movie.

And so it was another reprise of a favourite role on Saturday which showed why the Royals can win promotion - and why they may not.

Attack-wise, they have more tricks up their sleeve than Buffy taking on a blood-thirsty horde of vampires. Defensively, they are inclined to more nightmarish moments than the Blair Witch Project.

Inspired by a stunning Craig Owen hat-trick and cut-and-thrust strike duo Justin Rowe and Damien Markman, Sutton chalked up a sixth win in eight matches to push into the Southern One West play-offs places for the first time this season.

But manager Keogh said they still remain head-scratchingly unpredictable.

"It was typical Sutton. We give away three dreadful goals and we score six crackers," he said.

"Attacking-wise, we have been doing well all season. We are the top scorers in the league but unfortunately we've also got one of the worst defensive records. Over the last few years, I've prided myself on the fact that we haven't given too many goals away but I can't say this season that I've been proud of how we have been defending."

Bromsgrove boss Rod Brown could empathise and had his own reflections on the nature of football's perversity.

Brown, six weeks into his tenure in the hottest hot-seat in the Midlands' non-league game, had been thinking that his reshaped side were starting to hone their defensive security and he had praised his side in his programme notes for becoming "hard to beat".

His priority was to sharpen the side up-front, yet Neil Davis' instinctive finishing gave him a first hat-trick by a Rovers player since January 2004 and it counted for nothing. Oops.

Not that the fans could complain at the lack of value for money. Rovers led on 12 minutes when Davis, signed last month from Moor Green, sent a diving header from Kevin Banner's left-wing cross into the net but Owen levelled six minutes later with a perfect penalty into the top right-hand corner after Chris McHale had handled Liam Hebberd's cross.

Owen's dead-ball expertise continued on 26 minutes with a stunning 25-yard free kick which nestled into the corner before goalkeeper Tim Clarke had moved, but then the Banner-Davis combination worked its magic seven minutes later, Davis ghosting into space for another powerful header.

A goalkeeping howler from Clarke on 37 minutes allowed Rowe to nip in and nod Jamie Hood's throw-in home to give Sutton the interval lead and Rowe and Matt Dodd mixed perseverance and panache to set up Owen to sweep home his hat-trick goal from the edge of the box on 63 minutes.

Markman escaped to flick the ball past the advancing Clarke from Mark Wolsey's through-ball and roll in Sutton's fifth on 71 minutes.

Rovers' Davis bundled home Luke Reynolds' chip on 73 minutes and headed against the bar as they threatened a comeback, but Markman ended the contest when Dodd's trickery along the right and cross was despatched into the net.