Shenton praised the progress made since taking charge – which began with a 4-1 win against Scarborough Athletic last weekend – and insisted the side cannot afford to fall below the level they have reached.

“That’s the bar, we’ve set it there and we can’t drop below that now,” he said ahead of Saturday’s trip to Brackley Town.

“I won’t let it happen, but I don’t think they will now either. I think they understand, it's very clear what I’m asking from them as a group, and they keep on delivering.

“Each session we work with them, each game we’ve had so far, it’s getting better every one and we’re seeing those patterns a little bit more.”

While the result strengthened Radcliffe’s position in the table, Shenton maintained his focus remains firmly on performances.

“People think I lie when I say I don’t really look at it, I don’t pay too much attention to it, because the table will take care of itself,” he added.

“We know where we are, I’m not stupid, but it’s not something that motivates me. We need the performances to match the ambition.

“We’ll win a lot more than we lose if we keep doing that.”

Shenton admitted Radcliffe were not at their fluent best despite securing a 2-0 victory at Southport, but was delighted with the resilience his side showed to grind out another important three points.

Having impressed in the previous week’s win, Shenton felt his players had to find a different way to get the job done at Haig Avenue.

“Not as convincing as last week,” he said.

“I think we’ve probably rode our luck at times, but in the grand scheme of things we made a lot of chances where we could have put the game to bed a bit earlier maybe.

“Sometimes that’s going to happen. They’re in a similar position to us, so they’re fighting as well.

“I don’t think we got to play some of our best stuff. I think the pitch kind of slowed us down a little bit, but to a man there was a bit of a grit there.

“Like I said to you last week, there are ways to win and ways to lose, and sometimes you have to dig deep, which I thought we did really well.”

Shenton acknowledged Southport created opportunities of their own, particularly during the first half, but felt Radcliffe deserved the victory over the course of the contest.

“I thought we rode our luck a little bit, but overall the result was massive,” he added.

The Radcliffe boss was particularly pleased with his side’s positive approach after taking the lead, resisting any temptation to become defensive in search of a clean sheet.

“For me it’s the performance,” said Shenton.

“It would have been very easy to just try and protect that one-goal lead at that point and change it a little bit.

“Obviously that wouldn’t have been as front foot and sometimes it’ll go against us, it’ll bite us on the backside, but that’s not been the case.”