When football was locked down in March, National League Ebbsfleet United had better form than leaders Barrow. Fleet – then under the charge of Kevin Watson – had taken 16 points from their previous eight games, compared to Barrow’s 12.

Fast forward five months, the Cumbrians are a fortnight away from a first Football League campaign in nearly 50 years, their title-winning boss Ian Evatt has taken over League 2 Bolton, and Ebbsfleet are back in National League South after a three-year absence.

And then there’s Watson. Effectively sacked by the Fleet when his contract was not renewed at the end of May, he’s out of football management at the worst possible time.

“We were picking up two points per game by the time the season finished,” said Watson. “We only had seven games left and I didn’t envisage that we would have dropped away from those levels that much.

“I know it’s ifs, buts and maybes now but I was convinced that we would have stayed up, I always said that once we got out of the bottom four we’d stay out of it, and the way we were going I think we’d have pulled quite clear as well.

“It was becoming really enjoyable, to be going into training every day and then picking up results, but then the season ended at the wrong time not only for myself but also for the players and the club.”

Watson knows the football game inside out. The 46-year-old started at Tottenham and had spells at Swindon, Rotherham and Colchester in his playing days. He holds no grudges with Ebbsfleet – “bitter is not a word I’d use because I know what football is like” – and is keen to get back in the game sooner rather than later.

The problem is, however, we’re already a month into what would have been the new season and no football is being played. Budgets are being cut left, right and centre. While football above and below their level resumes in the coming weeks, the National League campaign does not get under way until October 3 .

“It’s a really difficult time,” conceded Watson. “I thought I’d done enough to take Ebbsfleet forward but one man’s meat is another man’s poison.

“I’ve been one of the only casualties at this level of football managerial wise. I’ve applied for a couple of jobs so far but have been unsuccessful, I’ll continue to plug away and get my name out there. It’s good I can get back out there and watch games again now as well.

“I’ve full belief in my ability and what I can do. I’m 100 per cent ready now. There’s only so much golf you can play – badly in my case – and there’s only so much fishing you can do. March is a long time ago now and I can’t wait to get back involved.

“I want to be successful and I know I can be. I’m open to any offers. Having managed at National League level then I’d look to get back in there but if anything comes up below that and the project or the plan fits what I am looking for then I’d definitely look at it. Whether those opportunities arise or not remains to be seen.”

It’s well publicised that points per game was used to decide final placings and therefore Ebbsfleet were relegated by 0.002 of a point, nearly two months after Watson’s departure was initially announced. With six National League play-off places up for grabs and each club in the top flight getting a vote, the decision was only ever going to end in one direction.

The final outcomes, of course, should not determine how Watson’s spell in charge at Stonebridge Road is viewed. He had taken a while to steer the ship around having been put in charge, initially on a caretaker basis , in mid-October when Garry Hill was sacked having amassed just 10 points from 16 games.

A quick look at the maths shows that Watson took 32 points from 23 matches, effectively half a season, which if replicated over the whole campaign would have comfortably earned a mid-table place in each of the three previous years.

Watson’s last hurrah was a televised match at FC Halifax on March 14. Gozie Ugwu’s early goal earned Ebbsfleet a 1-0 win against a team in the top six.

“We didn’t want to play that game,” recalled Watson, as the full extent of Covid-19 was starting to impact on sports fixtures. “It was one of the last games to take place as it was televised as well.

“Halifax get 2,000 at their home games but it was a really strange atmosphere, even at the hotel it was strange with hand sanitiser everywhere, it was different for all of us at the time.

“My last words to the players before we went out there was that Maidenhead had lost to Stockport earlier in the day. I wasn’t going to tell them the result but I wanted them to know that we could get out of the bottom three, which with what happened with Bury, was now the relegation zone.

“I’m glad the game was on TV now though, as it meant everyone got to see how good we were. We looked organised, everyone knew their roles and what they needed to do. We played with a high level of skill and quality.

“I was interviewed on the TV afterwards and Matt Smith and Grant Holt said to me that we looked like the team in the top six and Halifax looked like the team down the bottom, which was quite a compliment.”

That’s not to say Watson’s time in charge didn’t have its up and downs. There was the 7-0 defeat at eventual champions Barrow – “the best footballing team I’ve seen for a long time” – and the 4-0 loss to Chesterfield.

But there were also impressive wins over Woking, Hartlepool and relegation rivals Maidenhead, who they played off the park . Watson was learning his trade, and fast.

“I wasn’t as inexperienced as people thought,” said Watson, who had served as an assistant under the likes of Ronnie Moore, Mick Harford and Teddy Sheringham. “You learn a lot off those guys and then you add in what you want to do.

“I left out both of my centre-forwards at one stage because I felt they needed a kick up the backside, and they’ll both say that to you. I got the response and they were fabulous from that point through to the last game.

“I know as a manager you never make the right decisions all the time – even the top managers don’t – but I’d got a settled team and a settled formation. I changed the way we played at one stage because of how poor our pitch was but I had to change back to how I wanted the game to be played. If I was going to live by the sword then I’d die by the sword.”

Watson prided himself on being a players’ manager – although he won over many fans as well with an entertaining brand of football – and had his beliefs enhanced by the reaction he got following his departure.

“I got a call or a text from every player once I’d left, even the ones that I had released a few weeks earlier,” he revealed. “To get that reaction, especially from boys who I’d effectively ended their livelihood, that was nice and showed me that I’d been doing things right.

“I had calls from other managers in the National League. Sometimes you’d start to doubt yourself but calls from well-respected managers gives you that belief back again.”

With pride restored and self-confidence intact, Watson is ready to go again. For now, though, he must bide his time until the next window of opportunity presents itself.

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