Manager Jay Saunders says Tonbridge are facing the best side in the league this weekend.

Saunders takes his team to Stonebridge Road to play unbeaten National South leaders Ebbsfleet on Saturday (3pm).

Angels need to be sensible against Dennis Kutrieb’s men but Saunders also wants his side, who sit 11th, to show what they can do.

“I’ve watched Ebbsfleet and they’re the best side in the league, no doubt about it,” said Saunders.

“Dennis has done a brilliant job there.

“I know people go on about their budget but lots of managers have had big budgets at clubs and not done anything with it.

“You want to test yourselves against the best sides.

“Let’s get it right, they’re not a National South side.

“When you play the better sides, you show them the respect they deserve.

“They’re top and unbeaten for a reason so I don’t think any side can go there and play completely open because they’ll pick you off with the quality they’ve got.

“We’ve got to manage the game right but I don’t want to take away from what we’re good at.

“We’ve got good energy in our side and we’ve played some good stuff, so I don’t just want to go there and stick 10 men behind the ball and say, ‘Let’s see what you can do’.

“If you do that, you’re in for a long afternoon.

“We have to try and have a positive impact on the game at the same time as trying to stifle them.”

Louis Collins gave Tonbridge the lead against Bath last Saturday but the visitors won 2-1.

On-loan Charlton midfielder Jeremy Santos went off before half-time and has been ruled out for three to four months with a torn hamstring.

"I'm gutted for him," said Saunders. "He's been fantastic for us."

The Bath loss was followed by a 1-0 defeat at Concord on Tuesday night, where Angels missed a host of chances and paid the price after conceding a sloppy corner.

“If you get the first goal, you probably go and win it 4-0 but all the time it’s 0-0 it gives them something to hold on to,” said Saunders.

“We were so much on top, we just couldn’t put the ball in the net and that’s something we’ve got to look at.

“It’s a tough one to take because we were good in the first half but you have to take your chances when you’re on top and then we make a mistake and get punished.

“We never should have lost that game. I hardly slept on Tuesday night trying to get my head around how we lost.

“If we aren’t winning games like that, we’ve got to make sure we don’t lose.

“If it had finished 0-0 we’d have come away saying we’ve played really well, we just couldn’t score.

“Instead of that, we’ve ended up losing and that’s three defeats in a row.

“If we played that game another five times, I’d like to think we’d win comfortably, but we’re missing chances we’ve got to score.”