Goalscoring defender Donvieve Jones had no hesitation in committing his future to Sittingbourne.

Jones picked up the Brickies’ golden boot award after bagging 12 goals from full-back and wing-back.

His exploits attracted interest from other clubs but he wanted to stay at Woodstock and be part of an Isthmian South East promotion push under Ryan Maxwell.

“As soon as the season finished I knew I didn’t want to go anywhere because I’m enjoying it here,” said Jones, who was voted supporters’ player-of-the-year.

“I’d like to play as high as possible but I can’t look too far ahead.

“You see a lot of people move early and they end up dropping back down and feel a bit depressed because they’ve not been playing or the move didn’t work out.

“I just want to improve as a player each week and whatever happens, happens.

“Sittingbourne’s a good club, the fans are good, the chairman’s good.

“There’s a good vibe here for me to relax and focus on improving and being the best I can be.

“There’s some areas of my game I want to tighten up on.

“Ryan knows my strengths and weaknesses and he’ll never let me be complacent.

“He’ll keep pushing and pushing me.

“There’s no better person to be under to help me get better and better.”

Jones had never been a goalscorer before this season, making his return all the more impressive.

Ex-boss Nick Davis worked on making back-post runs with the defender, an approach that paid off as he struck in four successive games in the opening weeks.

The former Faversham man had seven goals by the time Davis departed after Christmas and added five more under Maxwell as Sittingbourne finished the campaign as one of the form teams in the division.

“It started in pre-season with Nick,” said Jones.

“There was this run he told me to do, to always try and make the back post, no matter what side the ball’s on.

“We noticed the winger on my side would never go all the way into the box which meant if the ball was right I’d always get on the end of it at the back post.

“That’s where a lot of my goals came from, just being at the back post and sneaking in.

“With Ryan, it was more about mentality.

“It was, ‘OK, you’ve got two this week, are you going to do it next week?’ Can you carry it on?’

“It was ‘Don’t be satisfied because you had a good game last week, you’ve got to do it again and again.’

“You could see that in our performances as a team, going 12 games unbeaten, because we kept repeating the same things that got us three points the week before.

“There’s a culture there and if you don’t fit in, you’re out and he’ll get someone else.

“He says to us, ‘If you listen to what I say, you’ll win the game or you won’t lose it’ and clearly that’s happened.

“From day one, when he first came in the changing room, it was his way or nothing and we’ve all bought into his philosophy. We know if we do it his way, we’ll be successful.”