There will be no espionage reports required when Ebbsfleet face Bishop’s Stortford at Stonebridge Road on Saturday.

Fleet striker Charlie Sheringham recently returned from a loan spell at Stortford, where his club-mate Matt Johnson is still playing.

Both players will know exactly how Stortford could hurt the National South leaders but Ebbsfleet boss Daryl McMahon won’t be leaning on either for inside information.

He said: "I don’t want to put them in a compromised situation. It’s the same for Aiden Palmer and Sean Shields with Chelmsford.

"I don’t see that as my role – we assess teams ourselves.

"I watched Stortford on our weekend off. We had them watched against Sutton on Saturday and we’ve had them watched three times altogether.

"What tends to happen is we’ll watch a team play on Saturday and they’ll set up differently against us.

"I’ll watch a team and say ‘this player’s dangerous’ and they’ll leave him out.

"But we can only go on what’s happened the week before."

Stortford lost 2-0 at home to Sutton while Fleet won 2-1 at Eastbourne to stay five points clear at the top.

They’ve taken 25 of a possible 27 points away from home although it’s been a different story at Stonebridge Road where they haven’t won for almost two months.

But McMahon said: "The results will come, there’s no doubt about that. Anyone who’s seen us play at home will bear testament that we’ve played really well."

Read the full story in the Gravesend Messenger.