Ebbsfleet boss Jamie Day is ready to start cutting down his over-sized squad.

Day has 26 players on his books at the PHB Stadium and he’s expected to let at least eight of those go so he can bring in new signings to help the Fleet’s promotion push.

The 35-year-old described Sunday’s 5-1 home defeat to Basingstoke as "embarrassing" and "unacceptable" and apologised to supporters after the game. Day had already been planning personnel changes but the nature of that performance has accelerated the process.

He said: "There’s players who have no value to us at the minute, being in this squad, and there’s players we want to get in. I’ve found out, since I’ve been here, that some players clearly are not up to what this club wants to achieve, so we need to act quickly.

"I wanted to give everyone a good period of time before I made those calls but it’s going to be sooner rather than later that we have to do that. I’ll speak to some of the boys this week.

"We’ve got to do it as soon as possible. We’re speaking to a couple (of transfer targets) but can’t hang around. We’ve played a couple more games than everyone else and we’re not good enough to be in the play-offs at the minute. It’s a simple fact, so we need to make the squad better."

Fleet owner Dr Abdulla Al-Humaidi, who was in the directors’ box on Sunday, has given Day money to spend but the manager knows his kitty must be used wisely.

He said: "We’re not just going to waste money. There’s no point in having a squad of 25 players, which is far too many. Players are going to have to go for us to bring other
players in.

"It’s not an endless pot of money that we’re going to use – but there are resources there.

"For me, you need a squad of 18 so I need to get that down and get the quality and the mix right because at the minute, it’s not."

Read the full story in the Gravesend Messenger.