There but for the grace of the footballing gods go us, right? It’s almost interesting (“Almost”. Ed.) to see what became of sides we used to spar with regularly with during our Conference days. For each Crawley, there is a Kiddy; with each Morecambe, there is an Altrincham. For the few to make it up, an equal and opposite number (if not more) went the other way. And Ebbsfleet United are one of those you can count in with the latter.
Of course, we call them Ebbsfleet. To most of you, they’re Gravesend and Northfleet in old money. The artists formerly known as Gravesend and Northfleet, if you want. Like Purfleet becoming Thurrock, the Kent side are rare enough in changing their name in situ. And what better reason for changing name than for a new railway station; part of a 2007 sponsorship agreement that also saw Eurostar become kit sponsors for three years.
Our record against the Fleet is formidable enough too; winning 15 of our 22 encounters to date. But they have one small bragging right. They were one of the few sides to beat us during our 2009-10 Blue Square Premier title-winning season.
