Rakish Bingham insists the final piece of the jigsaw on his road to recovery is keeping Ebbsfleet in the National League.

The 30-year-old striker bagged a hat-trick last Saturday to help the Fleet beat 10-man Gateshead 4-2 and remain four points clear of the drop zone.

It was another personal highlight for Bingham, who missed the first half of the campaign with a long-term Achilles injury that also saw him miss the end of the title-winning National League South campaign.

Bingham has returned at just the right time for Ebbsfleet and he certainly means business after making it seven goals in his last eight games.

“I feel like keeping Ebbsfleet up is the final piece,” said Bingham. “That’s the ultimate objective.

“That even goes before any of my personal needs or wants. Obviously, my personal needs contribute towards Ebbsfleet doing well but the main target is Ebbsfleet staying safe.

“This club has done so much for me personally and a lot of the boys in there. It’s only right that we repay that by keeping this beautiful club up.

“We want to be playing as high as possible. Staying in the league is the objective and next season we can push on again.

“I praise and give thanks to God because without him none of this is possible. It’s just a case of onwards and upwards and trying to push myself and deliver higher standards each time. That keeps me hungry as well.”

While team-mate and best friend Dominic Poleon is a regular in the hat-trick stakes - “He’s got more hat-tricks than I’ve had games!” joked Bingham - the treble against Gateshead was Bingham’s first senior hat-trick.

Amazingly, a player of his calibre hasn’t scored a hat-trick before but it underlines his continued improvement since returning to the side.

“It’s quite a long time so it’s a nice feeling,” admitted Bingham. “That’s my first senior hat-trick, it’s always been braces and never a hatty, at 30-years-old it’s about time I got one!

“I’d be lying if I said in the back of my mind that I wasn’t thinking about it once I got two goals.

“When the numbers came up on the board, I was hoping it wasn’t me going off so I could get another chance to score.

“I’m a team player who likes to contribute in all cylinders whether that be running, closing the ball down, getting assists, scoring goals or defending a set-piece and marking my man.

“I embrace all of it but to score goals is probably the best feeling in the world, you feel like you’re contributing the most and that’s what I’m paid to do.”

Bingham believes the addition of Dominic Samuel to the squad is healthy competition.

He admitted that he knows he can’t afford his levels to drop, or he’ll be the one on the sidelines.

“Me and Dom Poleon spoke last season and many a time this season, how another striker pushing us is brilliant,” said Bingham.

“We’ve got Dom Samuel now and everyone can see the levels he’s set since he’s come in are very high.

“It’s kept me and Dom on our toes, it keeps us all scoring and that’s better for the club.

“The thing is all three of us are good, we speak off the pitch and there’s no envy. We all want to push each other in training and games, we all want to play so it’s about taking your chance when you get it.”

Ebbsfleet travel to FC Halifax this Saturday and with games running out as they enter the crunch stage of the season, Bingham knows they need to keep delivering.

“We’re relentless with it now,” he insisted. “We need to concentrate on the next game, you can’t dwell too much on the high moments, you’ve got to keep working hard.

“It will definitely go to the wire and that’s how we’re going to treat it. We’re nowhere near safe, we know the importance of every game now and it’s about the next one already. We’ve got to do the same as we did last Saturday which is win.”