Ebbsfleet goalkeeper Mark Cousins has revealed the measures he goes to in order to keep improving his performances.

Last season’s player-of-the-year showed age is no barrier as he continued to impress between the sticks at 37.

Cousins was the second-busiest goalkeeper in the National League in terms of saves made. But the ever-present stopper knows, having conceded 74 league goals in 46 games, there’s still room for improvement.

“It’s 100 consecutive games for the club,” said Cousins.

“I think stats get thrown at you a lot now as a player, everyone likes a stat. I’ve been thrown plenty of them this season when we’ve been conceding goals so I’ll throw a few back as well.

“There wasn’t even footage of some of the games when I started playing. The ones you did get were on a video recorder or a cd-rom disk. That’s how it was back then, now the game is on my phone within an hour of it finishing and you can clip it and do whatever you want with it.

“Football has definitely changed in 20 years since I’ve started playing. Stats is one thing but watching games is still the basics - you judge what happens by watching.

“I watch every game back. I might fast-forward at times when the play is down the other end but I watch every defensive action from us, even if I’m not involved. It’s just a part of my game that I like to go over and see any way I can get better.

“Even though I’m 37 there are still times when you think ‘maybe I could have done this better’. It’s always good to watch back your games.”

So how does the obsession with watching back matches go down with his wife?

Cousins said: “I sit there in the corner on my phone watching it but when she’s not in the room then I’ll put it on the big TV!”

It’s testament to the former Colchester, Dagenham and Bromley man’s work ethic that he’s still thriving.

“I think every 1% counts,” he added. “The moment you think you’ve cracked it or you don’t need to watch games back to try and improve then you’ll get caught out.

“That’s why I try to look at things, even goals that go in, I watch them back and even if it’s a top-corner one, how could I have saved it?

“You never know, and some goals are unstoppable, but if you can work out how to read a striker better or see their body shape then it’s just a little thing that might help in the future.”

Cousins’ re-runs probably include one of the moments of the season - the late equaliser he scored at York just before Christmas that helped Ebbsfleet avoid relegation.

“I kept re-enacting it to my little boy,” smiled Cousins. “It was certainly a highlight not just of my season but my career.

“Goalkeepers can go through their whole career and not score so to get that one goal was good and it was quite a big one at the end of the day.”

There’s no question of retirement anytime soon for the popular keeper but, at the age of 37, it’s a question that Cousins knows he will face a little more as each year passes by.

“I’m going to go one season at a time, I’ll just keep cracking on,” responded Cousins, who has three player-of-the-season trophies to his name having won the honour twice at Dagenham.

“I certainly don’t want to stop playing now, I’m not going to knock it on the head now. I know I will probably transition to a different role in the next few years but I just want to keep playing.

“Every person I speak to who has retired, their message is always to keep on playing for as long as possible. I don’t want to regret that and hang my gloves up too early.

“I’ve had a great relationship with the fans here, to be fair. The club have been brilliant with my family, my kids love coming down and especially my boy, the club have been brilliant to him. I always wanted to stay, I had no intention of leaving.”

Fleet host Cambridge United on Saturday (3pm) and visit Welling United on Tuesday (7.45pm).