Ebbsfleet United boss Kevin Watson welcomes selection headache increased playing options causes ahead of National League clash with Woking
Published: 06:00, 19 December 2019
Updated: 13:13, 20 December 2019
Ebbsfleet manager Kevin Watson has welcomed having plenty of options to choose from in his squad.
The Fleet host Woking this Saturday with players who have been out of the side in recent weeks staking their claim to figure in Watson’s plans.
Lawrie Wilson impressed in the morale-boosting FA Trophy success at Enfield Town last weekend and Alfie Egan has done his chance of regular football no harm with a couple of impressive displays in recent weeks.
“Everyone is pushing for places,” said Watson. “It makes my job difficult and when everyone is fit there will be players who won’t even be on the bench.
“That’s how you need it and that makes my job tough. But it’s also pleasing that I’ve got good players I can call upon.
“All the lads that came in have done well. Lawrie Wilson was excellent, Alfie’s got back into the team and has put a real shift in and shown some quality.
“Up front we’ve got Tomi Adeloye, Josh Umerah, Gozie Ugwu and Alex Reid essentially battling for two spots with the way we’re playing at the moment. It’s a nice problem to have.”
Fleet have scored in all 13 of the games Watson has taken charge of.
They should have netted more than twice at Enfield and Watson wants his strikeforce to be more clinical.
“We score plenty of goals but I’d still like them to be more ruthless,” he added. “Reidy tried to drag it past the keeper too quickly and he read it, he should score with his header.
“Josh got in and should score, so we could score a hell of a lot more just by having that devilment and cutting edge.
“When they stop getting the chances then I’ll be worried but at the minute we’re creating chances in every game we’ve played.”
Marvel Ekpiteta (back) was left out of the FA Trophy tie but is in contention to return against Woking while skipper Jack King had his knee drained at the start of last week but recovered in time to lead the side.
Attention turns back to climbing out of the National League drop zone, with Fleet four points from safety going into a busy run of games.
Fleet have already knocked Woking out of the FA Cup after a replay and they took a point from the reverse league fixture after a dramatic comeback.
“We’ve narrowed the gap significantly with the run we’ve been on,” said Watson. “We’ve drawn other teams into it from above us who have not won in a long while.
“I’m confident and this group of players are confident that we’ll get out of the trouble we are in.
“Woking have gone on another run since the FA Cup games so it will be tough but every game in this league is tough.
“We can only look after ourselves and what we’re doing.”
Read more: All the latest sports news in Kent
More by this author
Matthew Panting