Ebbsfleet, Dartford and Maidstone will field development sides in a new regional playing programme next season.

The scheme has been designed to bridge the gap between under-18 football and the senior leagues.

Academy players will play alongside first-teamers in need of match practice as well as trialists and academy graduates.

Also part of the pilot project are Aldershot Town, Basingstoke Town, Dagenham & Redbridge and Sutton United.

Fleet vice-chairman Peter Varney said: "Our under-18s have done well this season and the next step is to make sure that when you can’t play young players (in the first team) because every game is so important, there’s a route to give them experience with more senior players.

"We’ll enter into an informal agreement so we can keep peripheral players fit and push younger ones on."

Dartford’s youth development centre manager Phil Murray is organising the programme and putting together next season’s fixture list, which will commence in September.

Teams will play two games a month at times and venues agreed between their first-team managers, who will also discuss the make-up of their squads.

Murray said: "Matching up is going to be important. If Dagenham tell Tony Burman they’re going to send a load of first-team players, he’ll want to include seven or eight of his senior players who haven’t been getting regular games.

"We don’t have a reserve team format, so when you’ve got recovering injured first-team players, they’re thrown straight back into the competitive environment without any rehearsal.

"We’re trying to develop a player pathway, to fill that gap between under-18 football and the first team."