Hawks continue flying National League South start with 'terrific' Ebbsfleet victory

Strikes from Tommy Wright and Scott Rendell inside the opening five minutes fired the visitors to an impressive 2-1 victory at the Kuflink Stadium.

It continued Hawks' flying start to the new season, with three wins from their opening four league fixtures.

Boss Doswell was full of admiration for his side's efforts at Ebbsfleet - a team he believes are favourites to lift the title come the end of the season.

He said: ‘It was a terrific win. I think they’ll be winning it, if not, whoever goes above Ebbsfleet will win it because they’re that good.

‘They remind me very much of Forest Green when we played them when I was at Sutton.

‘They’ve got a very specific way they play and they’ve got players technically good enough to do it.

‘I think they’ve got the best footballers in the league, by a mile, some of the football they play is outstanding. But the football they play does give you chances because they commit players forward.

‘We worked on it all week in terms of how we were going to set up and play - that’s the level of respect we gave Ebbsfleet, the fact that we felt we had to deal with how good they were.

‘We had the perfect start. We worked really hard on it all week about when we got the ball back and pressing in high areas and making use of those areas.

‘In fairness, we should have been 3-0 or 4-0 up in those first 20 minutes. Wrighty (Tommy Wright), I’ve got to say, had a really incredible game. All the players were incredible but Wrighty has ripped them apart, really.’

Wright and Rendell struck in the opening five minutes to leave the hosts shell-shocked.

Lee Martin pulled a goal back for Fleet right on the stroke of half time, but Doswell's side saw it through to claim all three points.

Striker Wright also had a goal ruled out late on after referee Ritchie Watkins had blown for a foul in the build-up on James Roberts.

Hawks have collected nine points from their opening four matches after Doswell had targeted taking 10 points from their first six games.

He added: ‘We’re nine (points) from four (games) so we couldn’t have asked for a lot more than that really - especially with three of those games being away from home.’

Hawks midfielder Theo Widdrington scored from the penalty spot for Gosport Borough in their 2-1 FA Cup first round qualifying win over Plymouth Parkway yesterday after moving to Privett Park on a three-month loan deal last week.