Ebbsfleet United manager Steve Brown refuted recent press suggestions that the club was unhappy with the Ryman League allowing postponement of a midweek game to give Whitstable Town more preparation time for Saturday’s FA Tropy clash.

“I must address the recent publications in the press that we as a club are upset that Whitstable were allowed to have their midweek game cancelled,” Brown clarified to FleetOnline. “That simply isn’t true. We actually congratulate the Ryman League for seeing sense.

“We were simply questioning the appropriate governing bodies as to why the rules differ from league to league. Skrill South teams cannot cancel a league game because they have progressed to the latter stages of a cup competition. As a rule we must replay cancelled games within a six-week period, making our fixture list very congested. Why is our league different?

“We had a very important FA Cup game against Dartford a few weeks back and we had to squeeze in a very tough league game away to Bishop’s Stortford, a game we could really have done without and consequently we lost Joe Howe to a groin strain on the night.

“Our grievance wasn’t about Whitstable’s game being cancelled, far from it – our grievance is that the courtesy doesn’t extend itself to all clubs that make the latter stages of any competition allowing them to give it their best shot.”