Aaron Cosgrave has explained why he doesn’t expect Ebbsfleet to sit on one-goal leads too much this season.

Striker Cosgrave came off the substitutes’ bench to get his competitive campaign going with the game’s only goal in last weekend’s 1-0 home win over Chippenham.

Moments later, the 26-year-old felt he also should have been awarded a penalty and, barring a couple of saves from keeper Mark Cousins, the Fleet rarely sat back during some seven minutes of injury time.

Cosgrave thinks it’s an attacking mentality which has come from both boss Josh Wright and the players themselves.

He said: “Obviously, the gaffer has instilled a winning mentality into the team all the way through pre-season and, every game, once we score one, ‘Can we get another one?’.

“We’re not happy with just scoring one and then maybe sitting back.

“That’s not the game-plan. We’re all hungry as players to go and get goals.

“It really shows when we’re playing and, hopefully, there’s many more goals to come throughout the whole squad.”

It’s perhaps not overly-surprising the former Welling and AFC Wimbledon forward has the view attack is the best form of defence.

He said: “It’s easy to think ‘We’re 1-0 up, let’s just defend the lead.’ But the way I see it, attack is the best form of defence.

“If we go and get another and put the game to bed, it makes it a lot harder for the other team. That’s what we try to do.

“Obviously, we only got the one on Saturday but, definitely, we’ll try to score more goals.”

There’s plenty of competition for places at Ebbsfleet and Cosgrave has had to make do with a place on the bench for the first two league fixtures.

But he came up with the perfect response against Chippenham.

“I want to start every game,” he said.

“But the main thing, if you don’t start, is don’t be too disappointed because the manager does it for a reason.

“Just believe that, when you get on, you can impact the game in any way - whether that’s scoring a goal, getting an assist or even just working hard to try and get the team the points. That’s the mentality I go with.

“If I’m on the bench or I start, my mentality is always ‘Can I effect the game?’ and ‘Can I win us the game?’.”

It has been a positive start to this campaign for the Fleet after last term’s National League relegation, with the team collecting a mere three wins and just 22 points from a miserable season.

But Cosgrave, one of those at the club for the 2024/25 campaign, said: “I feel like it just feels like a completely fresh slate. I don’t think we have dwelt on last season at all, really.

“It was mentioned on the first day of pre-season - and that’s been it. We haven’t thought about last season since.

“Obviously, we have got a lot of new players, as well. They didn’t go through that.

“I feel like it has been refreshing with the new players. A lot of them have come from winning teams, as well, and brought that into the team.

“I feel like there’s a really good winning mentality in that squad.”

While few expected Ebbsfleet to be among the favourites for promotion, they could have hardly asked for a better start from their first two games.

“We go into every game thinking we can win it,” said Cosgrave when asked if the players themselves expected the Fleet to be battling it out at the top-end of the table.

“You can take what you want from that.”

Ebbsfleet will host Chelmsford tomorrow night.