Manager Harry Watling wants his Ebbsfleet team to be unrecognisable from what’s gone before by the time they’re next in league action.

After an early FA Cup exit at the hands of lower-league Maidstone, the Fleet now have a two-week break from National League action.

While there’s a National League Cup group game at home to Tottenham under-21s tonight (Tuesday), the break in fixtures gives Watling the chance to work on his side’s fitness.

The new manager took charge in September and earmarked early on that fitness was a key issue among the players he inherited.

“We have got the best part of two weeks so I need to create a mini pre-season,” stated Watling.

“I need to create that season for the legs and the lungs and the next time our fanbase see us I want us to look like a completely different team.

“It might be the same players, but I need us to look like a completely different team.

“It’s going to be lots of hard work, lots of running and hard graft on the training pitch.

“I’m looking at improving our running power. I’m looking at improving our snap.

“I’m from round here, I’m local, so I know the people expect at a minimum for people to run around and compete, and fight and not give up. That’s in my nature.

“I’ve got to say after 80 minutes (on Saturday) we didn’t look like we had a lot of that. But after that 80-minute mark when we got that little bit of hope, we showed it again.

“I want to put a team on the pitch that the supporters are proud of, that they are excited to come and watch and that’s the bare minimum that I’m trying to do here.

“This two-week period is a blessing for us where I’ll get them fit. We’ve got a bunch of games coming up that is not against the top half of the division so we’ve got to make those count massively.”

Watling also disclosed that he’s made his mind up on players’ future in the squad, admitting that some may have to move elsewhere to find regular first-team football.

“I’ve seen enough from certain individuals to know that they’re not going to be for us, and that’s being brutally honest,” added the Fleet boss.

“I’ve seen enough from certain individuals to go ‘you’re going to help us get out of this’.

“My medical room at the moment is just as big as my changing room and we’re hoping we can get three or four of those guys back who are starters. I’m desperate for that to happen.

“We’ve got to make sure that the mistakes that were made in the summer are not made again in terms of recruitment. Everybody that we sign here has to be able to run, they have to be able to take the ball, and they have to have that character to deal with the expectations from the dugout and from the stands.

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“We need to be in play-off form and that’s a fact, we need to hit it now to get us out of where we are currently. I’m under no illusions. I have to draw on the experiences I’ve had as a football coach and a man, and I have to galvanise this group and get us out of this trouble.”

Ebbsfleet’s next league game is a trip to Tamworth on Saturday, November 9.

The Fleet’s home match with Eastleigh has been put back 24 hours and will now be played on Wednesday, November 27.