Sheppey United’s winning run has got rival teams interested in their players - but player-boss Jack Midson knows it’s not all about the money.

Midson has built a team on the go this season after landing the job days before the campaign began. After a slow start, the Ites have won their last five.

They beat Littlehampton Town 7-3 on Saturday - a result that left them fifth in the Isthmian South East table after the weekend results, occupying the final play-off position.

Midson said: “Sometimes you have to be careful of being a victim of your own success. People have started coming in for our players.

“At this level you can’t have 11 players under contract, it is not viable. You have to do it with a few because you want that continuity and you are trying to build, but some clubs who are lower than us are offering silly money.

“It is no good for anyone, some of the money flying around this league. Teams down the bottom are scrambling to stay up and it happens in every league [at] every level.

“We have a competitive budget at Sheppey, we look after the players in the right way and they have been pretty loyal recently.

“They are not on peanuts [here], they are on good, competitive wages and you would like to think they would stay.

“It is about finding the balance of getting a few more quid somewhere else or actually believing in a project we are doing, not just this year but keeping the majority of the squad together for next year.

“The grass isn’t always greener and they want to enjoy their football.

“If you can progress at this club, where you are enjoying yourself with a nice facility, nice pitch, nice staff, then why would you want to go?”

Midson played himself on Saturday - with top scorer Warren Mfula out injured - and he got the opener after 10 minutes.

Bradley Schafer scored the second and Jack Embery then went on to get a hat-trick before a flurry of late goals at both ends. Josh Wisson and Schafer completed the Ites’ tally.

It’s six goals in his last six appearances now for Embery.

“It is about finding that right mix and it looks like he has found it at the moment,” Midson said.

“He’s deserved it for his work-rate. When Warren was playing, Jake had to drop a bit deeper and pick up the ball, which worked to some extent. When he is running at people it is one of his best strengths rather than with his back to goal the whole time but he was still putting in the hard work.

“With me coming in, I am not the type to run in behind as much as someone like Jake, so it made sense for me to sit in the 10 and drop deeper when I had to and he could stay higher up and he was getting his rewards with the goals.”

The Ites have added attacking midfielder Eddie Allsopp to their squad this week. The former Herne Bay man has been described as "one of the best technical players in non-league" by assistant boss Jono Richardson.

Sheppey face the bottom two sides over the next two Saturdays - starting at Corinthian this weekend - but nothing changes for Midson. He’ll be looking to stick to a winning formula.

“These teams are fighting for their lives,” he said.

“We’ll do our research, presentations about their strength and weaknesses, go through the clips and videos of the good things and not good things and it has been working so far this season.”

Dan Birch managed 90 minutes after returning from injury at the weekend and Renford Tenyue is on his way back, too, joining in full training last week. Gillingham youth pair Sam Gale and Alex Giles should also be available this weekend.

Midson added: “It’s a great feeling here at the moment but we keep our feet on the ground.

“If anything, we’re over-achieving but we need to keep doing that. We have the belief, the work we are doing behind the scenes is clicking together and the new personnel we brought together to play our way have that good attitude around the place.

“Some people looking from the outside frowned upon the people I had been signing, but they seem to have gone a bit quiet at the moment.”