Sean Shields is on a mission to help Tonbridge make the National League South play-offs this season.

The winger continued his flying start to the campaign by scoring both goals in an impressive 2-0 win at Farnborough on Bank Holiday Monday.

That takes his tally to four already, having netted a superb winner against Weymouth on the opening day and an equaliser at Aveley.

Jay Saunders’ side remain unbeaten, sitting eighth after five matches, and Shields believes they have what it takes to challenge for a top-seven finish.

“We don’t want to be a team that settles for mid-table this year, he said. “We want to be pushing all the way.

“I’m so focused and determined and I know the management staff are too.

“I’m really confident in the squad we’ve built.

“It’s a long old season, there are going to be ups and downs along the way, and we’ve got to stick together.

“You’re judged on the hard times.

“When things are going well, and you’re on a three or four-game winning streak, it’s easy to be bubbly around the place, it’s easy to be confident going into games.

“But when you hit a difficult patch, that’s when you see the real characters, so we need to stick together, remain confident in ourselves and each other and we’ll push to the very end to hopefully secure play-offs for this club.

“The gaffer and his staff have done a great job over the summer recruiting a really strong squad.

“We know where we want to be come the end of the season.

“We know how tough this level is now.

“There’s four or five teams who train three-four days a week, they’re almost full-time, so we know how difficult it’s going to be to make those play-offs.

“But I believe in the squad, I know the gaffer believes in the squad, and I don’t see any reason, if we can be consistent and stay injury-free, why we can’t be around it.”

Shields joined Tonbridge from Rayners Lane in October last year.

Having left Scunthorpe, he’d been turning out for the Combined Counties League side while training with Barnet.

He enjoyed himself at Rayners Lane but the plan was always to step back up to the higher levels of non-league football.

Saunders offered him the chance and the 32-year-old has excelled at Longmead.

“I signed for Jay and I haven’t looked back,” said Shields.

“I couldn’t have enjoyed it any more than I have under Jay, Tom Parkinson and Lloyd Blackman.

“I’ve had the luxury of working with quite a few good managers at National League level but my relationship with Jay is second to none.

“It was a huge reason why I committed again to the club back in February, signing a new contract early.

“I’ve always believed having a good rapport with a gaffer is important.

“He trusts me, I trust him, and we’ve discussed it many times, we don’t think we’re far away from really pushing for those top seven spots. It’s exciting.”