Steve Brown is expecting a hostile reception when he returns to his old club Dover in the first week of the new football season.

Brown will take his Ebbsfleet side to Crabble on Tuesday, August 20, after the Conference South fixtures were released earlier this week.

It will be the 41-year-old's first competitive away game as the Fleet boss, having succeeded Liam Daish in the Stonebridge Road hotseat last month.

Brown, who was Nicky Forster's assistant manager at Dover, ended last season as first-team coach on Chris Kinnear's backroom staff.

His contract at Crabble was terminated by mutual consent and since taking over at Ebbsfleet he has signed five members of the Dover squad which reached the play-off final in May.

Brown said: "I knew I'd have to go there at some point when I became Ebbsfleet manager. It doesn't matter to me, it's just another fixture, but the media and people in the game will make more of it. I'm glad we're going down there early so it's not a focus for a long period of time.

"It means we can put it to bed in some respects. It's only the away game people are focusing on because I'm going to get some stick. That's part and parcel of the game for a manager.

"I've signed five of their players but only one (Daryl McMahon) was under contract. Naturally there will be some kind of reaction but I made a lot of friends at Dover and I always took the time to speak to people."

McMahon has been joined at Ebbsfleet by former Whites team-mates Ben May, Billy Bricknell, Dean Rance and Shane Huke. Meanwhile, Craig Stone, Liam Bellamy and Nathan Elder have gone in the opposite direction and are now Dover players.

"Dover have taken three Ebbsfleet players and we haven't made a peep," Brown said. "It's football. We're fully aware that if we left our squad to go out of contract, any club could talk to them.

"We haven't said a word and I don't understand what the massive issue is. It's been blown out of proportion by Dover."

He added: "In football you move from job to job and you're employed by the football club to do the best you can. I can honestly say I left Dover with my head held high in regards to my work ethic. I worked my socks off and I did the majority of the coaching, probably 90% of the sessions."