Assistant manager Ian Hendon says there’s no reason Ebbsfleet can’t gatecrash the National League play-offs.

The Fleet moved to within six points of the top seven with Saturday’s 3-2 home win over Boreham Wood.

The top six might be out of their reach but Hendon believes Ebbsfleet can catch seventh-placed Eastleigh.

“I look at it and would say seventh place is up for grabs,” said Hendon. “The other (six) places are pretty much filled with the clubs that are there.

“Someone’s got to get there. We’ve looked at our fixtures between now and the end of the season.

“There’s a few tough games in there but on paper we’re quite happy with the run-in we’ve got. We’ve just got to worry about one game at a time.”

When asked if Ebbsfleet were genuine dark horses to make the play-offs, Hendon responded: “Why not? We’re not making big noises about it but we’re in and around it.

“We’d love to get in there, obviously. There’s normally one that makes a late push for it so why can’t it be us?

“The lads are not naive in there. They know we’ve got an opportunity and if we perform like we can and be consistent with our performances then why not?

“We don’t put any pressure on the players at all. We take each game as it comes and we try to win that game.”

Hendon was impressed with his side’s discipline against 10-man Boreham Wood, who had skipper Mark Ricketts dismissed for two yellow cards in as many minutes during the second half on Saturday.

“We’ve learnt valuable lessons after recent events where we have had players sent off,” said Hendon.

“The lads showed a lot of calmness out there when maybe it could have gone the other way.

“It was a different side that played against Boreham Wood because of who we were up against, that’s why we made those changes.

“We didn’t run out as (comfortable) as we’d have liked but that’s football.

“We knew what the game was going to be like. It was going to be a battle. They are a big, strong side and we knew what was coming. We weren’t disappointed in anything and thankfully we stuck it out to get the three points.”

Fleet lost defender Dave Winfield to injury as he made his return as a late substitute having been sidelined since Boxing Day.

Hendon noted: “He’s in the treatment room so I haven’t got round to seeing him.

“I don’t know what it is but it looked like a muscle strain of some sort. I know he’ll be bitterly disappointed.”

Read the match report from Fleet's 3-2 win over Boreham Wood here