Sheppey United’s Dan Bradshaw reached another milestone with a hat-trick last time out but team goals remain the priority for the striker.

Bradshaw made it past the 150-goal mark for the Ites in their New Year’s Day win over Hythe Town. In what could be his last season, he’s determined to help push the club towards an Isthmian South East play-off spot and the chance of promotion.

Bradshaw said: “It’s a big thing to get the 150 and for me it’s a nice little achievement. It’s going to be touch and go if I’m going to be playing again after this season, and I just want one more chance to go up.

“I got promoted at Chatham twice and it was the best feeling in football. I want to do that at Sheppey - I don’t care how many goals I get, as long as we have a chance of going up. That is the main thing for me.

“It’s all about getting into the play-offs. If we make it, anything can happen.

“I am not naive enough to think we can win the league because Ramsgate and Sittingbourne aren’t going to be caught. We are realistic and play-offs are a possibility and that’s all I want.

“As a group, we’re all in, all trying to achieve the same goal. We all want the same thing and we need to give everything we can do to get it. We haven’t got the biggest of squads but we are good in what we’ve got.

“We had some pretty rubbish results over Christmas and ideally we would have wanted to come out with six or seven points and we didn’t do that.

“The squad has been forced into rotation quite a lot through injuries, it’s quite hard to gel, different players coming in and forced into different formations, it takes time for players to lock into it.

“We have players starting to come back now, we are five points outside the play-offs and there is another half a season to go. We could finish right in the mix if we play like we did on New Year’s Day, especially at home where I can’t see many teams coming and taking points off us.”

Bradshaw bagged a hat-trick in a 3-1 home win over Hythe Town, the first of those goals seeing the 34-year-old make it to 150 for the club in his two spells.

Another matchball to his collection was special but so were the much-needed points.

He said: “It was a good day! I went in thinking ‘if I can just get a goal and three points that would be good enough’. We were on a bit of a bad run and I knew we needed to get some points.

“We have some senior players in the side who have been there and done it and we know this isn’t panic time, it’s only halfway through the season.

“But if we want to get into the play-offs we need to start winning some games, we don’t want to drift away from the pack a bit.

“We knew that game was important and for me to get a hat-trick topped the day off. To make it to 150 in that manner was nice.

“I have a few matchballs but when I was at Chatham they stopped giving me them! I remember the chairman (Kevin Hake) saying to me: ‘Dan, we can’t afford to keep giving you them!’

“Having a signed matchday ball from that last game was a sign of a big day for me, a personal memento which was nice.”

It was Hake who originally signed Bradshaw for Sheppey after Jim Gray had given him a run-out in the reserves after spotting his talent playing for a pub team.

Bradshaw’s glad to have made such an impact during his career, which isn’t quite finished.

He said: “I always said I would retire at Sheppey and I am grateful the club has given me the opportunity and to score a few goals along the way has been nice. Hat-tricks are a rarity these days but I try!

“I have had opportunities to go higher, trial opportunities, pound notes offered to me, but I am happy with what I have done and who I have played for and my career. It is nice to have a status where a lot of people know who you are. I would rather have that.

“I have only played for two clubs really, Sheppey and Chatham, loved at both and if fans are willing to remember your name and put you down as a legend, or whatever, that is the best thing.

“My football has had an impact on people and that’s a really nice feeling. It’s one of the reasons I am half thinking about finishing at the end of this year because I don’t want to be chasing something I can’t get, with my body saying ‘you can’t do it’. I would rather go out happy and playing well!

“That 150th goal was a typical me goal from about three yards out! I have made my career on those type of goals and it was nice to round it off with my signature style of scoring.

“Morale was a little low in the camp and we needed a bit of a boost after a lot of injuries, our squad was depleted, it was nice to get points with different personnel on the pitch.”

Manager Ernie Batten has recently highlighted the major injury problems the club have had, needing to rely on emergency signings after being decimated.

A big boost on New Year’s Day was an appearance off the bench from captain Danny Leonard.

Bradshaw said: “He only played about 20 minutes but I think that gave everyone a boost to have someone like Danny back involved, to see that players are coming back from injury, it has given everyone a lift.

“We have to keep that momentum going and keep putting points on the board because if we start dropping them now then it’s a long struggle to get back with the pack. We have to be on it if we want to achieve what we want.”

Sheppey’s weekend game at AFC Croydon Athletic was postponed. They now travel to East Grinstead Town this Saturday and visit Billericay in the Velocity Cup quarter-finals on Tuesday night.