It's Round and It's White
We were favourites to go down at the beginning of the season after our promotion back into the Blue Square Bet Premier.
We had little money, could not afford the kind of players other teams in the League had and, yet, against the odds we are consolidating our place in the top division of non-league dootball.
I will start at pre-season, where one of our stand-out players from last season left. Ashley Carew, a player who can play in midfield or as a striker, departed for Cambridge.
Another good player we had to sell was left back Derek Duncan. We sold him to conference south club Woking. As for players coming into Stonebridge Road, we had to rely on free transfers. Former Charlton midfielder Alex Stavrinou came in as did forward Liam Enver Marum.
We also signed up former Southend left back, Johnny Herd.
Our financial state got (and is getting) worse, we started the season poorly with no wins in our first five games. Long-serving manager Liam Daish had to take action.
He used the loan market to bring in some professionals into the club, the first being intimidating centre back Yado Mambo, who has proved to be an excellent coup. To cut the cloth promising striker Scott Ginty had to be released and summer signings Stavrinou and keeper Joe Welch were allowed out on loan.
From then on we started to win games and play well, our recovery starting when captain Paul Lorraine returned from injury to partner, first Ian Simpemba, then Mabo in central defence.
To cut to the chase, we are now 15 points clear of the drop zone, but it has not all been good news. A few months back our chairman/director revealed that Ebbsfleet United needed £50,000 by the end of the season or risk going out of business.
During the season Daish took the decision to sell experienced defender Ian Simpemba, but did bring in strikers Gozie Ugwu and Nat Pinney on loan. Also, Daish brought in no less than three former players to the club.
Firstly he brought back midfielder Neil Barrett on a free and then persuaded defender Ross Smith to come out of retirement and cover our first team centre halves.
With ‘keeper Preston Edwards receiving a three match suspension for a straight red card last month we only had the vastly inexperienced stopper Tom McNeil to rely on, so we brought in former fan favourite Lance Cronin on a temporary loan from Bristol Rovers.
Thank you for reading an expect more regular updates on the one and only Ebbsfleet United very soon, I hope this piece has given you a good idea on how Ebbsfleet have done so far this year.
