Daryl McMahon believes Saturday’s bumper crowd will inspire his Ebbsfleet players when they run out to face Kent rivals Maidstone.

It will be the first league clash between the clubs at Stonebridge Road for 34 years and more than 2,000 are expected to turn up for the derby.

Fleet are nine points clear at the top of Vanarama National League South but in-form Stones could move into the play-off places with a win.

McMahon said: "The boys can’t wait and I can’t wait. We’re all excited.

"It’s a big game in terms of their position in the league, the Kent derby, us off the back of a loss (in the FA Cup), how you react to it.

"We’re at home and want to put a show on. I think the crowd will inspire the boys on Saturday. We’re playing in a Kent derby, we’re top of the league and we’re flying."

Fleet’s 2-1 cup defeat to Chelmsford on Tuesday was their first of the season but they’ve taken 31 of a possible 33 points in the league.

However, Maidstone are unbeaten in five and didn’t concede a league goal in September, winning impressively against Havant, Maidenhead and Bath.

Saturday’s game sees the league’s best two defences on show – Fleet and Stones have each conceded just six goals in 11 games.

McMahon said: "Both have got decent attacking players as well, so anything can happen on the day. I think it will be a tight game.

"Even though we won 2-0, it was quite tight down there, there weren’t loads of shots from either team.

"They’ll probably come with a similar game plan to Chelmsford.

"They’ll sit deep and counter-attack us, like most teams do here and we’ll have to deal better with the counter-attacks than we did on Tuesday."