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Dominic Poleon took his goal tally for the season to five with a double against Dover on Monday - but the Ebbsfleet striker isn’t keeping count!
“Is it? I didn’t realise,” responded Poleon, when told he’s already scored five in the opening month of the campaign. “That’s good, I thought it was four.”
By comparison, his final five goals of last season were spread across the last 16 matches, many of which saw Poleon used as a substitute.
He’s started all six league matches this campaign - his best run in a Fleet shirt - and he’s delivered with goals. After only starting five of those final 16 games last season, was it a topic for discussion with the manager in the close season?
“It’s a good question,” said Poleon, after a long pause.
“For me it was more about if you’re delivering on the pitch you want to play as many minutes and as many matches as possible. If you’re not doing that then that’s where you can face problems.”
There’s a gear shift in Poleon this season. It’s evident in the stats, it’s clear on the pitch and it comes through in his interview.
“We’re focused Matt,” he told me. “We can laugh and joke about scoring goals but we’re focused and, not that we weren’t taking it seriously last year, but the disappointment of it (Fleet’s play-off final defeat) has put a real steel within the squad and everyone around the club.
“We want to do well so we don’t have a repeat of last year, it’s been that little bit of fuel. Everyone says ‘you were close, unlucky, three minutes, two minutes away’, whatever it was, this season there’s a bit of steel and we want to leave it in our hands to do well.
“Last season is in the past, especially with what happened and how it transpired.
“As a striker you want to score goals, if you can’t score then at least you want to influence and try making them. For me personally, I just need to deliver performances on the pitch and don’t take anything for granted.”
Poleon’s double over Dover meant he scored against his former club, albeit his time at Crabble was brief as Covid put paid to the end of the 2019/20 campaign.
It represented another good performance from the Fleet, who have now won six in a row and played some entertaining football along the way. While Poleon wants the fans to be excited, he’s keeping his feet firmly on the ground.
“I had a spell at Dover just when Covid happened I was there and they stopped the season,” he added.
“Andy Hessenthaler is a great manager, they’ve got a good set-up down there and I enjoyed my short time with Dover. I wish them all the best and they gave us a tough game.
“As a player you have to remain grounded. Let the fans and people talk about what we’re doing, for us it’s done now and we’re onto the next game.
“We really need to have that mentality and we can’t get carried away by scoring this many goals or whatever it is, we need to be focused and have that grit and determination that we’re going to try and build on our performances.”
