By Nathan Jackson
June 1 2011

Ebbsfleet are a side who have gained fame in recent years due to their unique fan ownership initiative. The club, who have never faced the Imps competitive action, return to the Blue Square Premier after a year in the Southern section of the Blue Square divisions.

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Ebbsfleet will remain part time ahead of their return to the Blue Square Premier following a single year in the Blue Square South. They beat Farnborough 4-2 in the final and will return to a division where they resided between 2001 and 2010, however, their most famous game against Farnborough last year saw one of football's fastest ever sending offs, with goalkeeper Preston Edwards being shown the card. You can view the sending off HERE.

It's the latest in a relatively famous existence for a team at this level. They are the only team from Kent to have won the FA Trophy, were founder members of the top tier of non-league football and are one of the few true fan owned clubs in the world.

The club began life in 1946 and played under the name of Gravesand and Northfleet until 2007, at which point they changed their name to the current Ebbsfleet United. They were recently reported to be considering going back to the Gravesend and Northfleet name, although this has been rubbished by the club itself.

They are owned by the web based venture "MyFootballClub" that involved people owning a piece of the club for just £35, initially 27,000 people were involved and they peaked at 32,000 at one point, although that was down to just 3,500 at the begining of the 2010/11 season.

Liam Daish is the manager at the 5,011 capacity Stonebridge Road and he is optimistic about Ebbsfleet's chances, that despite remaining a part time club.

“We didn’t have the right infrastructure even when we were full-time,” Daish told "Newshopper." “I won’t deny things are going to be a bit harder for us next year as a part-time side but we are just going to have to rise to the challenge and meet it full on. Hopefully I will get some more deals with last season’s players done soon and talks are ongoing at the minute."

“I’m confident those deals will get done and once they are then I will know what else needs doing in terms of strengthening the squad. It goes without saying I will have to make new signings but I don’t want to put a figure on it yet because I will know a lot more when we get into pre-season,” Daish continued.

Lincoln and Ebbsfleet don't have many connections. The clubs have never meet competitively and only three players have played for both in recent years, Jamie Hand, Peter Holmes and Tony Battersby.

Getting to know the Blue Square Premier : Ebbsfleet

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 01/06/2011 22:28

theimps.ka
01/06/2011 22:28

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londonimp
04/06/2011 13:21

This away game will replace Barnet

will gets lots of Lincoln Imps going plus its easy to get to via London


Their fans are a good bunch too

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I Blame Paul Mayo
05/06/2011 10:25

It looks a really interesting ground, one of the better ones at that level i think. They have also retained most of there best players. I think they will do pretty well this coming season and have a similar season to what Bath had, possibly coming top half.

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