JOSH Windass is targeting a promotion charge with Accrington Stanley after netting his seventh goal in 16 games at the weekend.

The 21-year-old found the back of the net in the 3-1 win over Dagenham, which moved the Reds back into the play-off spots.

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And Windass believes they are capable of maintaining their strong start to the season, and even pushing for the top three.

Having failed to score in his first 25 appearances for the club Windass has now scored 13 in 31 games since the end of February, and he revealed a promotion push has been the target since Stanley returned in the summer.

“From the first day of pre-season the manager said if you don’t want to win the league leave us now,” he said.

“Since I’ve been here we’ve not really been at the top end of the league so it’s a bit different, but it’s miles better in this position and hopefully we can keep in the play-offs all season, if not push for automatic promotion.”

And the Reds’ appetite for promotion is fuelled by tales of Stanley’s last silverware, the Conference title in 2005/06 which led to their Football League return.

“Anthony Barry has told us a few stories of when they won the Conference and it’s had the same atmosphere so far this year so hopefully we can recreate history,” said Windass.

The former Huddersfield youngster has been among the goals since he started to play further forward, and Saturday was his first headed goal.

The move from midfield is one Windass is clearly enjoying.

“It works well because when Crooksy (Matt Crooks) bombs forward I can just tuck into midfield naturally,” he said.

“I prefer the forward role to the midfield role because I can get into the box more and I can sacrifice myself a bit for the team.

“I just try and play off the striker and Billy (Kee) wins everything so that is nice to play with.”

Stanley’s Wham Stadium success on Saturday ended a run of two straight defeats and meant the Reds bounced straight back from Tuesday’s dispiriting 4-3 home defeat to AFC Wimbledon.

“We had to win and bounce back from Tuesday,” said Windass. “We still didn’t get the clean sheet, but it doesn’t matter because we scored three goals and I’m sure we’ll go and push on.”