Ebbsfleet United’s player-of-the-year goalkeeper Mark Cousins says staying in the National League will be a bigger achievement than last season’s National League South title triumph

Ebbsfleet goalkeeper Mark Cousins believes avoiding relegation would be a bigger achievement than last season’s title-winning campaign.

The Fleet’s National League survival bid will go to the final day of the season after a goalless draw away to FC Halifax on Tuesday night.

It means Ebbsfleet must avoid defeat at Boreham Wood on Saturday to guarantee their safety, although they could lose and still survive if Woking are beaten at home by AFC Fylde.

Speaking after being named the Fleet’s player-of-the-year last weekend, Cousins admitted he’s been kept on his toes this year.

“It’s definitely the busiest season I’ve ever had as a keeper,” said Cousins. “Ranking-wise, I don’t know - winning the league last season was something special so that goes above it, but staying up would maybe be a bigger achievement.

“If we can get the job done then that will be right up there for many reasons.

“The first half of the season was probably the toughest I’ve had as a keeper.

“We were shocking, defensively, you can’t beat around the bush, it was really terrible. We had to fix it, and we did to be fair.

“We have improved defensively and we’ve started to see the results we’ve got because of our defensive displays. It has been tough but when it gets tough you have to keep going, you can’t just throw the towel in.

“It would have been easy around Christmas time to say we’re done and we can’t get out but we’ve kept going and have turned the corner. We’re on the brink of safety and we’ve just got to get over the line.

“These are the weeks that make or break you as players. We’ve got to dig in and stick together and that’s what we’ll be doing.”

Cousins played in all-but-one game for Ebbsfleet last season but he’s been an ever-present this time