Garry Hill has called on everyone connected with Ebbsfleet United to work together as they aim to become financially self-sufficient.

The manager admits Fleet have been 'cut to the bone' but heaped praise on his players for their efforts since his appointment in November.

Hill also spoke up in support of Dr Abdulla Al-Humaidi, the club’s owner, who set a financial restructure in motion weeks earlier.

It’s been a season of major upheaval at Stonebridge Road but Hill can see light at the end of the tunnel.

He said: “The most important thing for this football club is Ebbsfleet United living in an area and paying a wage where it can be self-sufficient going forward. That will happen.

“The No.1 thing is the wellbeing of this football club and we’ve achieved that already in the respect they’re going to be a National League team next season.

“We’ve got 10 games to go and these players will not roll over.

“Ever since I came to this football club, these players have done absolutely superb for me and they will continue to battle to the end of the season.

“What we’re trying to do at the moment is get a team on the park to get results.

“The players have been under a lot of pressure one way or another but they’ve been magnificent. They’re very professional, very bright and they’re a great set of lads.”

Hill said mistakes have been made since the KEH takeover in 2013 but is confident lessons have been learned.

He said: “The football club has potential going in the right way again and all credit to the boss.

“It’s very easy for people to stand on the outside and criticise but sometimes you have a situation where you put trust in certain people to do things for you and it doesn’t quite work.

“Then the manager moves on, in this case where I’ve come in, and you had situations above the manager where people have moved on and people are going into other positions at the football club.

“The players might not like the way they hear it but they’ve seen nothing but complete honesty. It has to be that way because no one’s bigger than the club.

“We will have a nucleus of players to build with next season and we’ll go again.

“Numbers have been cut and they can’t be cut any more because otherwise I’m playing.

“In respect of the management side or people walking around the football club, those numbers have been cut. We are cut to the bone, there’s no point saying anything else.

“It’s easy to think ‘let’s get one or two players in’ but we can’t get players in for the sake of it. I thought we had two coming in last Friday at 4.40pm but the goalposts got moved by another football club and we have to get on with that.

“The players are a pleasure to work with. Whatever comes out of the end of the season, the players have conducted themselves absolutely spot on since we’ve come in.

“Something’s got to be right if you walk in the first week in November with 23 points on the board, four months later you’re in the fifties and before Saturday’s game we were four points off the play-offs and all we’ve done is trim, trim, trim.

“Let’s give these players a great deal of credit. We’re in it together and we will be until the end of the season.

“This football club is a business and I’m sure everybody connected with the football club will say mistakes have been made along the way but, quite openly, the boss has turned round and said the football club has got to be self-sufficient long-term and he’s right. That’s what we will do.”