Getting out of Vanarama National League South will be harder this season than it was last, according to Ebbsfleet manager Daryl McMahon.

With just over six weeks to go until the Fleet’s first league fixture, McMahon admitted his side are playing catch-up in the race for promotion.

Ebbsfleet finished eighth in Conference South last term, 10 points adrift of the play-offs and McMahon believes the division will be even stronger this time.

He said: "There’s loads of work to be done.

"Finishing where we finished last season was not good enough and to go from there to try to catch the sides that finished above us – when they’re strengthening as well – is going to be hard.

"Havant have signed a lot of decent players, Whitehawk will be strong, Maidstone, Margate and Dartford are all going to be strong, Sutton will be decent this year as will Basingstoke – and they finished ahead of us.

"If I’m being really honest, the year to get out of it was last year.

"But the players we’ve got are going to come back fitter, stronger and wanting to
prove a point because what we did last year wasn’t good enough."

Read the full story in the Gravesend Messenger.