Sean Shields wasted no time making an impact on his first Ebbsfleet start for more than a month.

The winger set up one goal and could have scored a couple himself as Fleet beat Hartlepool 3-0 at the Kuflink Stadium on Saturday.

Shields, a substitute at the start of the season, had started six games in a row before illness ruled him out of the trip to Sutton on October 28.

He was benched for the next four matches but it will be hard for Daryl McMahon to leave him out if he keeps playing the way he did at the weekend.

Shields "The gaffer pulled me on Friday and told me he’d be starting me again. He said he wants me to go on another little run like I produced before.

"Before the Sutton game, I got food poisoning so I had to pull out of the squad and the boys did really well there, got a good point and I haven’t started a game since then so coming back in, getting a good result, it’s all I could have asked for.

"I feel like I did what the manager asked of me, popped up with an assist, had a few bright moments, could have scored and that’s what I look to do in every game.

"I like to be exciting, I want people on the edge of their seat watching me and now I want to go on another run, performance-wise and put in back-to-back displays for the team and help us push up the league."

Ebbsfleet's excellent performance against Hartlepool was in stark contrast to their 1-0 defeat at Woking last Tuesday, a display which angered McMahon and sparked something of an inquest when the players reported for training two days later.

"It’s been a tough week," Shields said. "Camp was quite low after Tuesday. The gaffer wasn’t happy and understandably so after the Woking game.

"We came in on Thursday and spent two days addressing the problems we thought were leading to us not picking up points in the previous two games.

"Everyone was focused coming into Saturday, we had two very good sessions on Thursday and Friday and it was great to put that into action on a matchday and get three points. I thought we played really well.

"Our shape was excellent. We got the 1-0 lead and spoke at half-time about maintaining that, keeping our discipline, finishing with a clean sheet and we knew we could always get more goals going forward.

"That’s a massive positive because at home, we said at the start of the season we wanted this place to be like a fortress and we’ve lost twice here already (to Aldershot and Torquay), which is disappointing for us.

"Now we want to go on a run, especially at home, where we’re picking up at least a point and more often than not, three, going into the New Year and see where it can take us.

"The Woking game was the most disappointing game of the season. We didn’t play anywhere near our potential, we were very disjointed and we were lackadaisical at times.

"Coming into Saturday, against a team that’s just come down from League 2, to beat them 3-0 at home shows the potential we’ve got in this group and hopefully we can push on now."