Tears of anguish in last season’s play-offs will spur Aiden Palmer on to even greater efforts when Ebbsfleet clash with Dover on Saturday.

Palmer and Fleet team-mate Anthony Cook were Chelmsford players this time last year when the Clarets were knocked out by eventual winners Salisbury City.

He said: "I cried. That’s how much it meant. It hurt a lot last season and I don’t want that again. If I’m going to have any tears, it’s tears of success.

"It’s just about getting the job done and putting that disappointment from last season right on Saturday, against a good side, a big, strong side. But we’re at home, so I think we can do it."

Palmer has played in every one of Ebbsfleet’s league games this season and also completed 90 minutes in their Kent Senior Cup final win against Dover on Monday.

That means he’s been ever-present in the Fleet defence which has kept eight straight clean sheets at Stonebridge Road – the venue for the play-off final.

Palmer said: "We’re buzzing at the moment. We’re all on a high – the squad, the management, everyone. We know what we’ve got to do and I think we’ll beat them.

"It would mean so much. You’ve got to give credit to Browny (Steve Brown). He came in with no players signed, so he signed us all and we’ve got to the play-offs.

"It’s been a hard season. Don’t forget, in the first nine games we only had one win and now look at us. We’re in the play-offs, we’re comfortable at home, we’re playing our best football at the moment and the confidence is high."