Manager Alf Ackerman brought home the Kent Floodlight Cup in 1970 to give success-starved Fleet fans something to cheer about as the new decade arrived. He followed that up with the club’s first promotion in 1971 with a side that included future England manager Roy Hodgson.

But the return to the Premier Division of the Southern League was short-lived as an under-prepared Fleet side finished rock bottom at the first attempt and found themselves relegated straight back.

Ackerman stepped aside in 1972 for former player Tony Sitford, a veteran of the historic 1962/63 FA Cup run, and he began a revival plan, building a side with a capable, long-term spine, players that served the Fleet well throughout the decade.

With only two league defeats, Sitford’s team delivered the Southern Division championship in 1975 and enjoyed a two-year, 40-game undefeated spell at Stonebridge Road with fans beginning to return in numbers after the lean 1960s.

Fleet consolidated a place in the Premier Division and under the chairmanship of Roger Easterby once again showed the ambition of the 1950s, pushing for the formation of a national non-league division.

Fleet saw more success, winning the Southern League Cup over two legs against Weymouth in 1978, having reached the Kent Senior Cup Final for the first time in 24 years the season before.

The new national division – the Alliance Premier League – came into being in 1979 with the Fleet one of the founder members and we finished in our highest ever position of fifth in the first season.

There was some FA Cup progress with the First Round reached for the first time in 12 years in 1978 and again the following year.