Whitehawk manager Steven King is happy to use bookies’ favourites Ebbsfleet as a yardstick when the two sides clash today.

Visitors Ebbsfleet have won their opening two games to sit in sixth and King has tipped them to be a force this term.

He said: “They are favourites and rightly so. They lost in the play-off final last year, are full-time and are spending big money this year.

“But take the money side out of it, they have put a good team together which has been together for 18 months already and have only added about four players to the squad.

“Their work in progress is well down the line.”

In contrast, King has been building a quality but new-look team at Hawks which still needs time to gel.

But King is not shying away from using Fleet as a measure of his side’s progress even this early.

He said: “It will be a gauge of where we are at against the top sides in the league, who are Bromley and Ebbsfleet. We’ve already played Bromley and the scoreline flattered (4-1 loss) them.

“So it will be interesting to see how far we are behind Ebbsfleet. I know all of their players as many of them played for me in the past and are good players.

“It will be an interesting game as to where we are as a team and they are the best benchmark really.”

King will pick from the same squad as beat Hemel Hempstead last Saturday for Hawks’ first win of the season.