Jamie Day believes the Ebbsfleet squad he inherited in December would have collapsed to a heavier defeat against Bromley than the 1-0 scoreline on Tuesday night.

Reece Prestedge scored the only goal at Stonebridge Road and the visitors comfortably saw the game out to go top of Vanarama Conference South.

Day, who has made major changes to his playing squad in the last two months, said: "I thought our shape was good and I thought the work-rate and desire was there, so that’s not an issue.

"If people question the boys we’ve brought in, I would say that the old group of players would have folded at 1-0 and we would have got beat three and four. That’s my opinion.

"People might say ‘well, you’ve been here eight weeks’ but we’ve changed a lot of players in a short space of time and those players we changed weren’t good enough, I don’t care what people say.

"They weren’t good enough, the atmosphere wasn’t good enough in the club and that’s changed. Unfortunately, with that, it will take time for that to work."

Ebbsfleet are seven points adrift of the play-offs while Bromley are a point clear at the top.

Day said: "They have a squad of players that have played all year, over 18 months, and we’ve got a squad of players that’s still learning each other’s games.

"I was pleased with how we played but I was just disappointed by the way we conceded. I’m a little bit disappointed that the possession we had, we didn’t turn it into good enough chances – which we need to start doing.

"I knew that either way, when you play the big games, a mistake or a bit of magic wins games. We made a mistake on the edge of the box and we got punished for it."

Day explained why he made no substitutions during the game.

He said: "I could hear people saying ‘change it’ but we can’t change it. Johnno (Matt Johnson) has got a shoulder injury, Dean Pooley’s a defender, which you’re not going to put on at 1-0 down and Mark (Gower) is fit but Theo and Stuart Lewis have done OK in midfield so you’re not going to change it just for the sake of changing it.

"We’ve got 14 injuries in the squad. That’s not an excuse but we weren’t in a position to be able to bring a forward player on to affect things further up the field. We were limited and we’re obviously disappointed that we couldn’t get ourselves back into it."

Ebbsfleet's next game is at home to Hemel Hempstead on Saturday, February 28.