Ebbsfleet United striker Dominic Samuel says the squad is well placed to cope with the pressure of expectation in the second half of the National League South season

Ebbsfleet striker Dominic Samuel says their season starts now.

The 31-year-old grabbed the winner as the Fleet won at Chelmsford on Saturday.

They sit four points outside the play-off places going into Christmas but have games in hand on some of the sides above them.

“The season starts from now, I’ve always said it, from Christmas onwards, that’s when the season kicks on,” stated Samuel.

“Hopefully we’ve learnt our lesson in the first half of the season and now, the second part of the season, we can just really kick on.

“Everyone expects us to be in the top two at least for the whole year. We have this pressure on us but we’re not worried about it.

“We’ll just keep working hard and as long as we’re in touching distance, that’s all that matters.

“We’ve got a good enough squad to last the whole season so whether these teams at the moment are still there in a few months’ time, who knows, but I know we’ll only get stronger.

“That’s how you’ve got to see football, you can’t win it in the first half of the season, the table’s starting to change, some teams are starting to drop form and stuff. I feel like it’s all about timing.”

There always seems to be a microscope on the Fleet’s results and performances in every game.

The debate about their goalscoring issues continue but Samuel knows he’s got to look at the bigger picture.

“You know as a footballer you can’t really read too much of the comments outside of the pitch because some of them are nice, some of them are not,” he said.

“The fans want us to do well, they want us to be high up the table, which is understandable, but it’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint, so I believe we’ll be all right this year.

“I have strong belief in this team that we’ll go back up and hopefully it