Ebbsfleet United

Ebbsfleet United is a non-league football club from the south bank of the Thames estuary in Kent that was formed in 1946 as Gravesend & Northfleet FC, following a merger after the Second World War between Gravesend United and Northfleet United.

Gravesend United

Gravesend, who played at the Overcliffe Ground, were formed in 1893, becoming founder members of the Kent League in 1894-95. They joined Division One of the Southern League in 1896-97 prior to playing the 1901-02 season back in the Kent League.

They left the competition before returning to finish runners-up in 1905-06, which was repeated in 1908-09. The Kent Amateur League title was lifted in 1935-36 by the team that played in red and green stripes.

Northfleet United

Northfleet United was formed in 1890, moving into the new Stonebridge Road ground in 1905 and then joining the Kent League in 1906-07. The team finished runners-up in their debut season before being crowned as champions in 1907-08, 1908-09 and 1919-20.

The club joined the Eastern Section of the Southern League for the 1927-28 campaign, returning to the Kent League for the 1930-31 season. The following year an arrangement was made with Tottenham Hotspur for United to become their nursery side.

Consequently, it led to a period of great success, as the Division 1 Championship was won in 1931-32, 1934-35, 1935-36, 1936-37 and 1938-39 along with League Cup triumphs. The team netted over 110 goals for seven consecutive seasons.

Gravesend & Northfleet/Ebbsfleet United

The new amalgamated club was formed in 1946, retaining the red and white colours of Northfleet and their Stonebridge Road ground as they became Southern League members. The league title was lifted in 1957-58 before ending South Eastern zone runner-up in 1958-59 under manager Jimmy Logie.

The team was relegated to Division One of the competition in 1962-63, climbing back to the Premier Division in 1970-71. Their spell lasted just one season as the Fleet dropped back down to Division One South, which they went on to win in 1974-75.

In 1979-80 the Fleet became founder members of the Alliance Premier League, now the National League, where they retained their place for three seasons before being relegated in 1981-82. Following a fourth place in the Premier Division of the Southern League in 1983-84, the team was relegated in 1985-86.

Promotion was clinched in 1988-89 as Southern Division One runner-up. The Fleet remained a Premier League side until the completion of the 1991-92 campaign, when they were relegated to the Southern Division. Again, the team recovered, to lift the title in 1993-94 to regain their former status.

The club left the Southern League to join the Isthmian League for the 1997-98 season. The change of scenery paid off the Fleet won the title in 2001-02 to win promotion to the Conference with Andy Ford in charge of the team.

Former Portsmouth and Republic of Ireland defender Liam Daish was appointed as manager in July 2005, going on to lead his side to seventh place in 2006-07 at which point the club changed their name to Ebbsfleet United.

It was claimed that this move would make the club more recognisable to the outside world as the new Ebbsfleet station on the high speed Channel Tunnel rail link was a short distance from the club and the whole area was evolving.

If that move caused a ripple of unrest amongst the loyal fans, the next would hit home like an earthquake. The website MyFootballClub bought control of the club. The idea was that subscribers would each pay an annual subscription to become owners of the club.

Around 27,000 subscribers paid £35 each amongst great publicity. However, it turned out that the website hadn’t been completely transparent with its subscribers. They weren’t told which football club would be bought for them to play with.

The sales pitch also told perspective new owners that they’d have a say in team selection and transfers. Many believed the website were about to buy Leeds United who were in deep financial peril at the time. It was a major disappointment to those wanting to play real life “Football Manager” when it was revealed which club that they would actually be a part of.

The Fleet went on to lift the FA Trophy at Wembley to give those new owners who were interested a day out in the sun in 2007-08. A Chris McPhee goal was enough to defeat Torquay United 1-0 in the final.

The team reached the Trophy semi-final in 2008-09 before membership soon fell dramatically with only an estimated 400 paying their fees with the website budgeting for a minimum of 15,000 to break even by the end of the 2009-10 season as the side were relegated to Conference South.

The club were optimistically looking to move to a new stadium in the Ebbsfleet Valley at Gravesham in the future. Promotion back to the Conference National was secured via the play offs at the end of the 2010-11 season following wins against Chelmsford City and then Farnborough.

Financial troubles hit the club the following season before MyFC's shares were sold to the Fleet Trust and a major shareholder in April 2013. The club was sold in May 2013 to KEH Sports Ltd, a group of Kuwaiti investors after the team had been relegated to Conference South.

Daish departed to be replaced by Steve Brown who led the side to the play-offs in 2013-14, defeating Bromley before losing the final 1-0 to Dover Athletic. Jamie Day was appointed as manager in November 2014 before he was replaced by former midfielder Daryl McMahon in April 2015.

The 2015-16 campaign saw another play-off campaign in the renamed National League South after finishing league runners-up. Whitehawk were defeated before Fleet fell to Maidstone United on penalties in the final.

The Reds were not to be denied in the 2016-17 play-offs, as Hampton & Richmond Borough and then Chelmsford City were defeated as Ebbsfleet returned to the top level of non-league football. Stonebridge Road was retitled Kuflink Stadium in a sponsorship deal in October 2017.

The momentum continued, with the team reaching the play-offs again in 2017-18 before losing out to Tranmere Rovers in the semi-finals after defeating Aldershot Town. Garry Hill arrived as new manager in November 2018, with his side just missing out on a chance to play for promotion.

Kevin Watson was the next man in the manager’s role from October 2019, with the 2019-20 going on to be decided on points per game after ending early owing to the outbreak of C-19. Ebbsfleet were relegated to National League South when the places were totted up.

Dennis Kutrieb replaced Watson in June 2020, with the German having led Tennis Borussia Berlin to the top of the fifth tier of German football before their season was also halted because of Coronavirus.

The 2020-21 season was also halted because of the lingering pandemic with Ebbsfleet sitting in eighth position. The side reached the playoffs in 2021-22 defeating Chippenham Town before losing after extra time in the final to Dorking Wanderers.

The goals of Dominic Poleon and Rakish Bingham took the side to the league title and promotion to the National League in 2022-23. Danny Searle replaced Kutrieb in February 2024.

Ebbsfleet United FC will play in the National League in the 2024-25 season.

My visits

Gravesend & Northfleet 5 Scarborough 2 (Saturday 5th October 2002) Football Conference (att: 1,259)

I met my pal Steve for this epic lads day out at Paddington, before we took the tube down to Charing Cross and the Griffin Pub to meet a colleague from Lord’s, Martin the Sunderland supporting groundsman. He wanted to come and watch a game with me for some weeks, and seeing as I was going to support the Mackems the next day at Highbury, it only seemed right.

After a few pints, with a few dodgy looking Birmingham fans coming into the pub for some Dutch courage before their day out at West Ham, we caught the train down to Northfleet. Our first impressions were not too flattering of the scenery. It seemed very much like somewhere that had seen better days. 

We wandered round the corner to The Plough pub, which was a two roomed local with a beer garden out at the back for the kids to play in. There were quite a few Seadogs in there and one or two strange locals amongst the rest of the very decent Fleet fans. 

All our regular drinking crowd were there; Butch, Batley, Liz, Andy, Simon the Gillo Seadog and his brother. One local told his daughter not to be playing with any Northerners. I’m not sure if it was his attempt at humour, but it helped crank up an atmosphere that had previously been convivial.

We went across to the ground where we found a decent sized clubhouse behind the home end. My day was rapidly improving, as another colleague from Lord’s, Bob Gunton, who was also on the board at Stonebridge Road, had left me a complimentary ticket. My pals made sure I got the beers in to make up for that!

The match itself was non stop end to end football. Boro looked excellent going forward but woeful at the back. G&N were not dissimilar although their back five at least looked like they’d been introduced before kick off. 

We were two down just before the break when I walked round the ground for half time beers and refreshments when Keith Scott pulled a goal back. The locals in the queue for burgers were not impressed that I had the audacity to cheer.

Stonebridge Road was a traditional old place, which I quite liked. It wasn’t in the best of areas and it had huge electric pylons over a corner of the ground. As we entered the ground the near end was a covered terracing with the clubhouse round the back. 

The left hand side touchline had a cover over the terracing over the half way line. The far end was open terracing and the far side had an old wooden seated stand with lots of wooden stanchions holding it up. Open terracing stood either side of it.

The second half continued in the same vane. Fleet went 3-1 up, before Scott bagged his second and dragged us right back into it. The vocal home fans stayed in the covered terrace which we were playing towards, even though there were all the Seadogs in there as well. 

The youths had a drum and were quite vocal. We weren’t very quite either which made for a good atmosphere. Unfortunately this led to a couple of fans on either side going too far with the stewards having to come in and separate the two sets of fans. It was nothing serious but it left a bit of a sour taste, especially as Fleet added two more goals to end up 5-2 winners.

We carried on with a couple of beers in the Plough before realising we’d missed our train. To resolve this situation we went to another pub up the hill, The Coopers Arms. This really was a strange place with a huge alsation chewing a bone by the bar. Steve mentioned that the previous nights turn must have been poor!

We eventually made it back to London so I could have a few hours without alcohol before an early start for the kick off at Finsbury Park the next day.

Gravesend & Northfleet 1 Scarborough 1 (Saturday 29th October 2003) Football Conference (att: 747)

The weather was dull as I took the train from London Bridge to Dartford. I was not in perfect condition after a Friday night out and to make matters worse that I would need to catch a replacement bus service from Dartford to Northfleet owing to engineering works on the railway. 

Again Bob did the business with my ticket and I was soon in The Plough, though not as early as the previous season. We went over to the clubhouse a bit earlier where the Boro directors were gathered. I happened to ask Chairman Malcolm Reynolds about how the plans for the new ground were progressing? 

He introduced me to his expert on the scheme, Ian Scobbie. I walked away in a happy and optimistic mood. How little I knew!  Boro played really well and should have really come away with more than one point courtesy of a Colin Cryan goal. 

I met much maligned Boro forward Mark Quayle after the game as I had a smoke outside the clubhouse with my beer and he seemed a really decent fella. After a couple more in The Plough it was time for the journey home by bus and train.

Gravesend & Northfleet 4 Scarborough 0 (Saturday 5th March 2005) Football Conference (att: 1,178)

I met Carl and his two traveling companions, Dan and Nick, from the train at Kings Cross. After a beer in our usual local down there, the pretty ordinary Dun a Ri Bar on nearby Caledonian Road we went down to London Bridge for the train down to Gravesend. We had arranged to meet Simon and some of his pals down there who he’d talked into watching Boro.

We had one beer by the station at the Robert Pocock before it was decided The Plough by the ground was a better option. Gravesend really was that poor! That was nothing, compared to what was to come.

Bob had come up trumps again and had left me a ticket, but that was the end of the good news. The covered terracing was out of bounds owing to safety work being needed on it. To counteract the home fans losing part of their traditional territory, the away fans were given half of the open terracing at the far end. 

This had separate entrances and total segregation from the home fans and more importantly no access to the clubhouse. It was a pretty miserable day with squally showers hitting us out in the open. We were all in a cranky mood anyway so our heroes decided this would be the day to put in the most abject of performances. It was truly awful. 

Many of us had doubts in Nick Henry as a manager for some time. His signings were getting more and more desperate, although in mitigation we didn’t know the constraints he was under off the pitch. It was disappointing as we were unbeaten at home, albeit drawing plenty of games, and the play offs were within reach, yet we just never looked like truly capitalising.

When The Fleet went 3-0 up we decided enough was enough and headed back up the hill to The Coopers Arms who had Sky TV to see the scores coming in. The mood was hardly lifted when G&N’s fourth goal was reported.

We caught the train back to London, only for Chairman Reynolds to come and join us. We were totally respectful but voiced our concerns about the way the team could blow a great chance to reach the play offs. 

We were told not to worry and Henry was the man to lead us, even though he was sacked in the summer. We chatted about all things Boro and many revelations were made about how big the crowd really was against Southend United in the FA Cup amongst other things. I think this was made in an effort to impress us. It generally did the opposite.

We alighted at London Bridge, where the burning question as ever for the travellers was would it be the Flying Scotsman, the KFC or would there be time for both? I miss those days out!

Friday 16th July 2010

I was out and about around the clubs of North Kent for the day and I had been joined by Gillingham based Seadog, Simon Keane from his workplace in Sittingbourne before stopping off at Gillingham. We boarded the new high speed train, which I was convinced stopped near the ground at Ebbsfleet International station.

Sure enough the floodlights of Stonebridge Road peaked over the distant hill, so after Simon had sorted out his ticket, we were soon walking through the huge car park and onto the new adjoining road that led straight to the turnstiles. The most noticeable thing was the sign for Ebbsfleet United instead of Gravesend and Northfleet.

We got inside and walked around the old home end where we came across a few old fellas, who were just about to lock up for the day. They were cheerful blokes and were only too pleased to give me five minutes to take some snaps.

The ground hadn't changed since our last visit, save for a temporary seated stand, like the ones at Fulham, being placed over the condemned terrace in the home end. This had red tip up seats placed on it.

We bade farewell with the thoughts of a pint in our minds. The Plough, our regular point of call was shut, with scaffolding around it. We missed a train by a minute, meaning we had a further thirty minutes to kill. We headed for the Coopers Arms, only to find that it had been converted into a sit down fish and chips restaurant! 

My companion was not to be beaten, saying he was sure there was a pub further up the main road, when as if by magic The Rose appeared down a side street on our right. It looked a bit rough but we gave it a go. 

It was certainly very much an old locals pub, but the landlady was warm and friendly, asking if there was a match on after spotting my Boro tshirt, so we explained we were going to watch Dartford.

The locals all wished us well as we left, so if I ever go to a game at Ebbsfleet again I'll give it another go. Plus there's the excuse of a chippie between there and the ground now!