New signing Mark Gower could make his home debut when Ebbsfleet United resume their promotion bid at home to rock-bottom Staines Town tonight (Tuesday).

Gower, the former Tottenham, Southend and Swansea midfielder, has joined Fleet until the end of the season and he came off the bench in the FA Trophy defeat at North Ferriby on Saturday.

Ebbsfleet manager Jamie Day said: "I’ve known Mark a long time. He’s had a little bit of time off from the game but when you look at the levels that he’s played at, we need to get him a little bit fitter. He’s probably two or three weeks away from being where I’d like him to be, fitness-wise.

"But even when he came on, his ball retention is good and you can see what quality he has. We’ll look to get him as fit as we possibly can and involve him in the games that we’ve got coming up. We’re going to need everyone over the next spell of games."

So what exactly will Gower's role be over the next couple of months?

Day said: "It depends on how he does and how fit we can get him. If I can get him anywhere near what he was six or eight months ago, you’ve got a League player playing for us.

"We’ve brought him in to add a bit of experience and a bit of quality for 20 minutes or half an hour until we get him fully fit. Depending on how he does is how further we take it with game time."

Gower has effectively come out of retirement to sign for Ebbsfleet.

Day said: "He’s been playing lower Essex League just because he loves playing football.

"I met him last week, we had a chat and he’s still got the desire to want to play football. I’ve watched little bits in training and I know what he’s capable of doing so we just need to get him a bit fitter. He could be a key part to where we want to go."

Staines arrive at Stonebridge Road 10 points from safety and having lost 6-0 at home to Bromley on Saturday.

Day said: "They’re going to want to bounce back after having a heavy defeat on Saturday.

"We’ve done a lot of travelling so the boys are a little bit tired but I’ve got a good set of lads that want to do well for this club.

"I’m encouraged by the way the boys battled on Saturday. We’ve got to take that into this week and the rest of the season.

"The aim is to get into the play-offs so that’s what we need to do. I’m disappointed by losing and not getting any further in the Trophy but we need to concentrate on picking up as many wins as we can.

"If they show the same level they’ve shown since they’ve been here, which is five or six games, we’ve got quality to win games. We dust ourselves down and we look forward to playing Staines on Tuesday night."

Defender Tom Bonner and forward Tyrone Marsh are available after being cup-tied on Saturday, although defender Anthony Acheampong is ruled out with concussion.