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Preview - Ebbsfleet United

Posted on: Fri 05 Mar 2010

EBBSFLEET United will aim to avoid a repeat of last summer's squad decimation by asking supporters to help them sign key players on new contracts.

The Fleet's entire squad will be out of contract after April 24, but chairman Duncan Holt revealed he will meet manager Liam Daish this week to prepare a list of personnel they want to keep.

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Mr Holt said he hoped "a supporters' initiative" could generate enough cash to keep seven or eight of Fleet's best players.

Fleet's financial woes worsened as it emerged that just 800 of more than 4,000 MyFC members, whose membership was up for renewal last month, chose to continue their support.

The number of members has fallen to around 4,500, with the club planning to launch a share issue to raise enough money to see them out of this campaign and into the next one.

Mr Holt said: "We had somewhere in the region of 20 per cent renewing. We were obviously hoping for a lot more, but it gives us something to work with. We are waiting to see how it affects our cash flow.

"We will now focus on two things, the share issue, and getting momentum for a campaign to get the budget to re-sign seven or eight key players.

"It was clear from the supporters' forum that nobody wants a repeat of last year. I'll sit down with Liam and talk about who to keep and get some numbers, so we can put them to the supporters as soon as possible.

"Hopefully, at the end of April when the 43-week contacts are up, there will be seven or eight contracts covered by a fans' initiative."

Mr Holt said the share issue was a "completely separate thing", but added: "Where the money comes from doesn't matter - to sustain where we are and take care of the deficit we need between £200,000 and £250,000."

He revealed MyFC members would face a vote on a share issue in the coming weeks and said he hoped it would allow 75 per cent stakeholder MyFC to release some of its equity.

Meanwhile, the team came away from play-off chasers Kidderminster Harriers in midweek with a precious point after recovering from an early setback to eventually settle for a share of the spoils.

Liam Daish's men fell behind to Darryl Knights' fifth-minute opener on Tuesday evening, yet retaliated through a Moses Ashikodi volley and substitute Scott Ginty's drilled finish to lead 2-1.

Brian Smikle levelled though with 13 minutes left on the clock for a 2-2 draw that arguably did neither side any favours.

This Saturday, Daish's men travel to mid-table Wrexham, who are well adrift of the play-off picture, yet clear of the relegation dogfight in the Blue Square Premier.

Nonetheless, Daish's managerial counterpart Dean Saunders is eyeing a late surge into the top five with the Red Dragons - leaving the Ebbsfleet boss to insist there is still plenty at stake for both clubs.

"They've made a conscious decision to try and make the play-offs because of the games they've got left to play," Daish added.

"I've read that Dean Saunders has not joined up with the Welsh squad this week because he feels that there is still work to be done and they can make the play-offs.

"They'll look at us as another step towards that, but we've got to make sure that we're right on our mettle because that's a massive game on Saturday."

The Fleet's point at Kidderminster was the perfect response to last Saturday's 4-1 drubbing at home to fellow strugglers Barrow, where Daish admitted their defensive deficiencies wrecked an encouraging start.

"We went into Saturday's game in a good vein of form, confidence was high and that showed in the first 25 minutes," the 41-year-old explained. "But, we've got to realise that every team carries a threat in this league and you've got to stay concentrated and keep that back door shut at all times

"It was really from Barrow's first foray into our box - and half - that they scored, which knocked us back. However, to then have them score again so quickly afterwards and go 2-0 down, that was the turning point.

"We had the lion's share, yet we maybe got caught up with what we were seeing in front of us. We switched off defensively for a minute and got punished.

Kent Messenger

Gravesend Reporter

 

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