It didn’t take Charlton loanee Albie Morgan very long to find favour with Fleet fans at the Kuflink Stadium on Saturday.
Inside the first 20 minutes, he had released Josh Umerah down both the left and right flanks with incisive passes and was then instrumental in Fleet’s goal with a first-time pass out wide towards Andre Blackman.
That – and more of it – is hopefully what Morgan’s offering the Fleet in the coming weeks.
“[I’m here] for a month to see how it goes,” the midfielder told BBC Radio Kent’s Matt Cole. “If all goes well, I could be here for longer, that’s the aim. All I’m focused on now is playing men’s football and getting Ebbsfleet back up the table. I like to get forward, that’s more the thing I enjoy doing, scoring goals, but obviously the defending part of the game is massive and I’m willing to do that for the team.”
And Morgan felt his midfield partners did their defensive share and were unfortunate to finish on the losing side.
“”I’ve only been in for a couple of days so it’s nice to meet all the boys. Today didn’t go as planned but as I’ve heard from previous games, I think that was a good stepping stone. Obviously it was unfortunate not to get the win but I think the way we played, the way we dominated, we didn’t deserve to lose the game at all.
“I think as a team we did that [defending] today – it’s just two mistakes have cost us. They’re the two things we have to put right and hopefully we can put that into next week’s game against Woking.”
That’s a game Morgan is unavailable to play in but he’s itching to get back out there to start affecting the Fleet’s league position, with a visit to Sutton awaiting after the Emirates FA Cup tie.
“I’m not available to play in the [FA Cup] game,” he said, “but I’ll be back for the game after that and if all goes well, I’ll play and hopefully we can get the win. After today’s game, I don’t see how we’re placed bottom but that’s how football goes and if we cut the mistakes, we’ll deffo show why we shouldn’t be there.”
Kevin Watson and the Fleet staff know they’ve managed something of a coup in the National League to land Morgan and the 19-year-old was convinced to come by the interim boss’ intentions to play a passing game.
“That’s how I like to play,” said Morgan. “I’m not really a long ball kind of player. That game suits me to play, I’ll get it down and pass. Me, Paynie, Frankie in the midfield, I think we’re all capable of doing that and I think as we get confident, get more games, cut the mistakes out, I’m sure we’ll start winning games. I’ve been surprised how well we played today. I think we dominated and there’s a good standard of boys in the dressing room.
“The [transfer] window didn’t go as planned for whatever reason and I found myself back in the youth team and U23s. This opportunity came about through [Charlton] assistant manager Johnnie Jackson knowing Kevin Watson. I felt it was a good opportunity for me to come here and show I can play men’s football, I haven’t lost the touch playing it and I can show why I should be maybe higher or at a different level.
“Having spoken to Johnnie Jackson I knew I was going to get some game time down here and since I’m a local boy, I went to Rochester Maths School and live there, it was a good opportunity. It’s easy access to the training ground at Charlton and easy access to here so Ebbsfleet’s a good place for me to come and show what I can do.
“I’ve been at Charlton since I was seven and had a little break when I was 13, went to Welling and came back again when I was 15 and been there ever since. I played quite a few league games last season [for Charlton], the semi-finals of the play-offs. Last season was a good year for me in the team and a good stepping stone in my professional career.”
Listen below.