Linfield midfielder Chris Shields has praised team-mate Kieran Offord for producing “magic moments” and taking the pressure of playing for the reigning Irish League champions in his stride.

After impressing during a loan spell at Crusaders, Offord joined the Blues for a six-figure fee from Scottish Premiership outfit St Mirren in January and has hit the ground running this season.

The 21-year-old struck in Linfield’s 2-0 Conference League second qualifying round win over Zalgiris at Windsor Park before netting his maiden league hat-trick against Dungannon Swifts.

Offord’s thunderous strike on Thursday evening helped David Healy’s side set up a play-off with Shelbourne as they look to seal League Phase football for the first time in club history.

placeholder image — Chris Shields celebrates with Kieran Offord after scoring against Dungannon Swifts. (Photo by Andrew McCarroll/Pacemaker Press)

The Scottish striker has impressed since arriving in the Irish League and Shields has noticed a difference in Offord following his recent exploits.

"People forget he’s quite young as a footballer so he has a lot of maturing to do, but he’s not a player I’d look to over-coach because he has those brilliant, magic moments that we seen the other night,” Shields told BBC Sportsound. “A turn off the cuff, some people would want him to pass and then he buries a shot from 20 yards out.

"He almost did it again 10 minutes later with the other foot, so he’s a joy to play with sometimes and sometimes he’ll frustrate the life out of you!

“He’s producing these magic moments, which is great for him because he probably would have felt a bit of pressure coming to Linfield with a bit of a price tag...it’s totally different playing for Linfield than Crusaders.

"It seems to be the weight of the world off his shoulders since he got that first goal, he hasn’t looked back.”

Linfield are in the strange situation of having to once again face Shelbourne, who knocked them out of Champions League qualifying just over one month ago.

The winner will bank a significant financial windfall of £2.7million with the ability to rack up more depending on League Phase results, and Shields feels his side are in a much better position heading into this tie.

"We’re definitely better prepared,” he added. “We’ve had six European games and every one of them were really tough, challenging matches.

"You’ll never get that from any sort of pre-season friendly and we’d another tough league game against Dungannon.

"We feel with minutes in the legs and our minds and bodies are in a far better position going into this round than when we met them in early-July.”

Shields twice played in the Europa League group stages with Dundalk, captaining against Premier League giants Arsenal, and that experience could prove crucial in helping Healy’s men get over the line.

"The likes of myself and Jamie (Mulgrew), I think if I play on Thursday it’ll be my 60th European outing and Jamie just passed that in Lithuania,” said Shields. “You try and draw on past experiences.

"We experienced playing in Tolka Park about six weeks ago so everybody can draw on that. For me, we’ll remind ourselves we’re in a better position going into this game.

"The unknown is out the window because we’re familiar with how Shelbourne play and how we play with six competitive games since the last one.”