Player-boss Jack Midson believes Sheppey's players are finally doing themselves justice.

The Ites moved into the top half of Isthmian South East for the first time this season following Saturday’s 3-2 derby win at Faversham.

It was a third victory in four games for Sheppey and Midson’s happy with their recent form.

“It’s about having that belief and that work-rate but it’s also about having the right personnel coming into the club for the right reasons,” said Midson.

“They do what I ask them to do, they run through brick walls. We’re not going to win every game this season but, when the chips are down, they’ll step up.

“I think that mental strength and that desire to win nitty-gritty games away from home in tough conditions is what gets us over the line. Hopefully we’ll keep doing that and we’re looking up now.

“We have games in hand and, I’ve said in the changing rooms, we did ourselves a bit of a disservice at the start of the season.

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“Now, the table’s a little bit more of a true reflection of where we should be.”

Prolific marksman Warren Mfula’s latest treble at Salters Lane - his third hat-trick this season - took him to 16 goals this campaign.

It’s seven goals for Mfula in his last four games following a run of six matches without a goal.

Midson said: “He’s brilliant. You have to try and keep his ticker up sometimes because he does get down if he’s not scoring but it’s not for the want of trying.

“He works so hard and he’s got his reward in the last couple of weeks. He’s never going to go long without a goal and, when he gets one, he gets three.”

Left-sided player Tom Hanfrey also had an encouraging Ites debut.

Midson said: “Tom’s been out for a little while. He left Ramsgate over a month ago, he had a couple of weeks out where he tried to keep himself fit, but matches are key to get that match sharpness.

“He’s a really good lad to have in the changing room.

“He respects me and I respect him, and he’ll be a really good player for us.”

After a chaotic end to pre-season which saw former manager Ernie Batten take on a director of football role, assistant Marcel Nimani leave the club and Midson take the managerial hot-seat, Sheppey are finding their feet at Step 4.

The Ites, who are due to host Burgess Hill tonight, entertain Cray Valley this Saturday.

“The club have given me a healthy budget,” added Midson.

“Obviously I was named manager literally right at the start of the season so I didn’t have a pre-season to build up and, to be honest, our pre-season wasn’t very good. We were a couple of weeks behind everyone else but we gradually got there and now we are kicking on.

“At the start of the season, we had all the cup games and we had three or four replays so that affected our league form.

“Of course, you like to be in cups but, now we are out of the cups, we can concentrate on the league and it’s paying off now.”

Sheppey were knocked out of the Kent Senior Cup last Tuesday, losing 3-0 at Margate.