Ebbsfleet manager Harry Watling has explained why he made Millwall’s Sha’mar Lawson his first signing.

The 21-year-old midfielder has joined the Fleet on loan from the Championship club until January.

“It’s about variety, so what do we not have in the building?,” said Watling, a former coach in Millwall’s academy.

“I think he’s an exciting, running number eight. He’s got really good pace but he’s got really good ability with the ball in terms of him being a technician. He fits the bill for us massively.

“I’ve got real close friends and people at Millwall that I trust who have said ‘take this lad, he’ll really benefit from you and you’ll really benefit from him’.

“The transactional process of a loan has to be two ways. We have to benefit from it in terms of performances from it right now, the loanee has to benefit from it in terms of when he goes back to his parent club that he’s a better version of himself.”

Lawson made his debut as a second-half substitute in the 3-2 National League defeat at Sutton on Saturday.

He made an immediate impact, his forward run creating space around the edge of the penalty area which led the Fleet’s first goal just a minute after his introduction.

“That’s his job, as a running eight, to find the right times to release himself and come out of that midfield block that we’ve got and go and penetrate the box,” explained Watling.

Lawson is no stranger to National League football after a previous loan spell with Maidstone at the end of the 2022/23 season.

Meanwhile, Fleet boss Watling described midfielder Toby Edser’s absence from the squad at Sutton as “precautionary”.

Edser picked up an injury against Hartlepool last weekend and missed training earlier this week.

“It’s a precautionary one,” said the Fleet boss. “Toby did train on Friday but we thought we didn’t need the risk.

“He got a knock in the game last week and was patched up and got through it. We didn’t let him out Monday and Tuesday, he went through some runs on Thursday and was fine.

“Then Friday he trained for the first time so I’m hoping to see him back very soon.”

Ebbsfleet visit Maidenhead in the league on Tuesday night, knowing victory will lift them off the bottom of the table for the first time since August.

Watling insisted: “Every game is a big game, if we’d won the game on Saturday it was a massive game, we’ve lost it and it’s still a massive game.

“Every game is a big game, we’ve got to treat them all as big as one another.

Report: Sutton 3-2 Ebbsfleet

“It’s a great opportunity on Tuesday to come out and put things right, that’s the beauty of football, it’s the same as golf when you’ve always got your next shot.

“In football, you’ve always got your next game so it’s about trying to put it right and use the time we have got – there’s a 48-hour block – so we’ll be working extremely hard to get those three points on Tuesday.”