Ebbsfleet United boss Steve Brown was delighted with his rejigged side after they celebrated success in the Kent Senior Cup Final after beating Dover Athletic.

Brown, who changed half his side after the weekend’s Skrill South Play Off triumph over Bromley admitted, “We didn’t really have that many places to go with what we had available to us – it was only Sunday night that we got a ruling that anyone registered for Ebbsfleet United could play, so we could fill the bench with a couple of sixteen year olds which was good for us and it was great that they both got on!”

The Fleet boss then expressed surprise over the opposition line up.

“Dover’s selection did surprise me as I thought they’d go a bit stronger than that – we still had to get the job done and I thought that we were very patient.”

“We’ve already lost twice to Dover in the League this season and so this win was very important especially as we’ve got them again on Saturday in the Skrill South Play Off Final.”

“It’s a clean sheet and a very good win for us and so I’m pleased that we’re now able to some momentum at least into the weekend.”

Ironically the two sides meet again on Saturday with a place in next season’s Skrill Conference the prize, and the Fleet boss conceded that perhaps his side had taken a huge step forward.

“Confidence wise and morale wise we scored four very good goals today and we got the trophy as well – another clean sheet and I’ve got to say that we’ve had some terrific, terrific performances today; Paul Lorraine was outstanding after being out for 12 weeks – it’s well documented that he’ll be moving on as he can’t meet the training next year, but he still puts in a captain’s performance today that is incredible.”

“We can take so many pluses out of today – we’ve always said that we’re a tight unit and today I think really has proved that.”

“We know that Dover’s away record is very, very good and that it’s going to be a very passionate afternoon with a packed out ground.”

“That said, we’ve got a decent home record – eight clean sheets on the bounce says something, so for us at least there’s so much for where the game’s being played.”

“But we also know that there will be eleven players on the other side of the pitch who will want to ruin our day to make theirs! “

“We know that they’ll bring all the big guns back and we know what to expect and it’ll be one of those days when the big players will have to turn up which will mean the better your performance means the better the chances of promotion.”

“We’ve knocked out the team that lead the League for seven months of the season, and it is just another game come Saturday but it’s got a massive, massive prize at the end of it!”

“But we’ll celebrate this as we should, and then go again for the weekend…”

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