Manager Jamie Day has not given up hope of making the play-offs, but he accepts Ebbsfleet’s best chance of promotion may come next season.

Defeat at home to Bromley on Tuesday has left Fleet seven points adrift of the top five in Vanarama Conference South with only 11 games left.

They don’t play again until February 28, when Hemel Hempstead visit Stonebridge Road, so all of their promotion rivals can steal a march on them this weekend.

Day said: "I want to get in the play-offs because I’m a winner. I want to get this club kicking on and going forward. But it doesn’t happen overnight.

"People’s expectations of where this club should be are similar to mine but it’s going to take time to get there.

"If people want instant success, you can go and get another two or three managers. They’ll be in the same boat, in the same situation.

"People need to be patient. We’ve shown in the past (at Welling) that we’ll get the right results. That’s what I’m capable of doing and the staff are capable of doing and I believe we can do that."

Day has signed 12 players – eight from Football League clubs – since succeeding Steve Brown in December.

But the Fleet don’t yet look like a team capable of challenging for promotion.

Day said: "The group of players we’ve got, individually, are very good players that have played a lot higher.

"It’s a different type of football they’re playing now and they’ve not gelled as quickly as everyone would have expected. I knew it was going to take time, but people want instant results.

"I’m disappointed, like any supporter would be, but we will get it right. If it’s this year, great, if not, I’ll get it right next year.

"I’m not the finished article as a manager, far from it, but these experiences are only going to make me better."

Read the full story in the Gravesend Messenger.