EBBSFLEET manager Steve Brown will use his side’s vacant Saturday to run the eye over next weekend’s opponents Farnborough.

The Fleet, currently on a run of three straight wins, are not in action again until they host the Conference South strugglers on March 1.

And when Farnborough play Eastleigh on Saturday, a frustrated Brown will use his spare day to get the lowdown on a future opponent and promotion rival.

The Stonebridge Road chief said: “I’d love to be getting up on Saturday morning and preparing for a fixture but it isn’t going to be there, so we are not going to worry about it.

“All we are going to do is get into training tonight, have a really good session, and then start to concentrate on the following fixture. That is all you can do.

“What it will allow me and Steve Gritt to do, though, is to get out and watch other teams.

“The only positive is that our lads get a rest, which never does you any harm at this stage of the season.”

Brown added: “It is frustrating because we are in good form, but the other positive is we get to see other opposition we have got coming up.

“We have got nine games in March and it is a real shame because we have got a perfectly good Saturday with no one to kick a ball about with. It is frustrating, but what can you do?

“It was important that we won all of our games leading up to the spare weekend and it has given us a bit of a cushion.

“All of the other teams have to try and chase, and catch us up with any games in hand they may have.”

Ebbsfleet beat Whitstable 2-0 in the Kent Senior Cup semi-final on Tuesday evening and Brown was delighted to see his much-changed side prevail to the final. He said: “It was one of those games where I made a lot of changes.

“It was a case of making sure we got through a tricky tie and we did that.

“We had a call last week saying that their pitch would be unplayable for the foreseeable future while the weather is like it is.

“They asked to have it at our place but it was still their home game.

“We were thankful to be at home because of the state of Whitstable’s pitch, and it was nice they just wanted to get the game done because of their fixture backlog.

“It was nice to be at home and it was nice to get the victory.”

Follow us on Twitter @NewsShopperSprt