Remy Clerima sees no reason why he and his buoyant Braintree Town team-mates shouldn’t be eyeing a top-five Vanarama Conference Premier finish this year.

However, manager Alan Devonshire is keeping feet on the floor and trying to maintain their focus on simply making their place in the league safe by getting past 50 points as quickly as possible before thoughts stretch to play-off ambitions.

A productive run of five games in 15 festive days saw the Iron add 12 points to their tally to take them up to 14th in the table ahead of Saturday’s hiatus in league action as they head to Gosport Borough in the second round of the FA Trophy.

Their 5-1 defeat by Eastleigh aside, two wins against Dartford and victories against Torquay and Chester over Christmas and New Year have left Braintree heading into 2015 looking upwards rather than over their shoulders at the relegation scrap.

And with the Iron now just seven points off the play-off places, defender Clerima feels they should be aiming to better last year’s record high sixth-place finish.

He said: “In the second half of the season, I think – and I think most of the other players would think the same as me – that we should aim for the maximum number of wins and be pushing up for the play-offs."