He may have had to wait three months into the season to make his home debut but Alex Finney insists the wait was worth it to recover from injury and regain fitness so he can stake a claim in the Fleet defence.

The former Maidstone and Aldershot defender told BBC Radio Kent’s Charles Webster, “I had my injury from the back end of last year and it just took longer than it should have. We’ve got everything behind us now and the medical team down here have been amazing. That’s behind me and I don’t want to think about it, we’re just looking forward.

“You’re easing your way back in and I didn’t have a pre-season, so the way the gaffer was looking at is easing me into it so that there’s no re-occurring injuries or something like that. Then when I’m back, I’m back and then I’m in contention with the boys.”

The wait has been worth it for Finney, whose previous game also included an Emirates FA Cup tie and a clean sheet, but he’s not wearing the label of ‘lucky charm’.

“I wouldn’t say that,” he added. “I think the team is a great team, the players helped me today. As much as people say I played well, you can only really play as well as the people around you and they made my job a lot easier today. So I wouldn’t say I’m a lucky omen, I feel like it’s a good group of lads and we should be winning the fair share of our games this year.

“When I’m not in it, I enjoy watching them and when I’m in it, I just want to stay in it. Everyone holds everyone accountable and that’s the biggest thing with a team that wants to go upwards, you’ve got to hold everyone accountable. It doesn’t matter if they’re your best player. We can achieve what we want to achieve, we’ve got the players. I know Dartford are doing well in the league but we we fancy ourselves against teams like them and Maidstone so we’re looking forward to getting back to the league, get some points on the board and then looking forward to that next round [of the FA Cup].”

Finney’s introduction as a centre-back into a back four caught Hampton on the hop and even the Beavers’ boss Gary McCann admitted as much in his post-match interview. And the Fleet defender credited his manager with the tactical nous to make that pay off.

“That’s the thing about the gaffer,” said Finney. “He does his research, he’s very thorough so the majority of the time, unless they come and do something that they’ve never done before with no analysis of, then the gaffer knows what they’re going to do. We set up and we knew what they were going to do so it just shows you what a tactician he is.

“The way he plays is I think how every footballer wants to play. It’s hard work and he’s got us in training very hard and it’s not just by chance we play like that on a Saturday or on a Tuesday. It’s because he has a desire and he’s obviously got the players in that he needs to do that and thankfully I’m one of them.

“A lot of the teams are kind of part-time-ish, where they’re in three days a week. We’re in sometimes six days a week and it’s two tactical sessions, fitness too, because you have to be fit to play. It’s all by design from the gaffer and we work on it 24/7 and it’s not just a fluke.”

Finney had played at the Kuflink Stadium previously for Maidstone and he’s delighted to have run out on the home side at last.

“I haven’t got a bad word to say about the fans,” he said. “Every time I’ve been here it’s been lively! There’s new additions this year and obviously I’m new to it as well. It’s starting to click, the players are getting on the same wavelength to what the manager wants to do. And that’s all by design. You can see it in the way we play, the movement doesn’t just happen, it’s worked on every single day so it’s coming together a lot more. I still feel like we’ve got a little bit more to go and that’s probably a bit scary for other teams that we’re not completely at our full potential.”