Ebbsfleet boss Harry Watling is expecting a massive response from his players after their miserable season reached a new low on Saturday.

It’s now nine games without a National League win for the Fleet, who sit 10 points adrift of safety after shipping six second-half goals at home to Solihull Moors. It was the club’s biggest home league defeat since 1991.

Fleet travel to AFC Fylde this Saturday and then host Eastleigh on Wednesday (kick-off 7.45pm).

“We got walloped and I can’t wait for the next game as I want to put it right,” said Watling.

“That’s the thing with football, we want to be able to put it right and improve on what we’ve been doing. We’ve got to make a massive statement over the next couple of weeks in terms of what our football looks like.

“I won’t walk away from it. The personal stuff when they’re shouting at you, for me I’ve got skin like a rhinoceros. I’ve had worse, I’ve been in front of 52,000 every week at Ibrox so it’s one of them things.

“I get their frustrations, I totally get it. It’s part and parcel of the job. I’m sure when we won our first game against Hartlepool everyone was saying it’s the Harry Watling Show, so it’s still got to be the Harry Watling Show.

“If you take the credit you’ve got to take the other bits with it. It’s up to them what they say, some of it is over the mark, that’s down to them individuals. I’ll just keep trying to do my job.”

It’s Watling’s first managerial role in this country after coaching stints at QPR and Glasgow Rangers.

He’ll turn 35 next week and has been given a baptism of fire in the hotseat at Stonebridge Road, despite recording back-to-back league draws prior to the weekend.

“It’s a test, absolutely a test,” added Watling, who never shirked away from any question.

“It doesn’t matter what level you’ve worked at, whether you’ve worked below this, above this or at this level, it’s a test.

“That’s the biggest margin I’ve ever been beaten by, I’ve never stood on the line before and felt how I did. I never want it to happen again but I need to see more from my players.

“I wanted to go on the pitch, I wanted to run around and I wanted to put a stop to what was going on.

“For me on a personal note, you’ve got bite down on the gumshield and keep going. We need everybody to have that mentality, to be honest.

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“I thought there were some small positives in the National League Cup game against Spurs, last week there were big positives at Tamworth and we would have liked to have taken all three points.

“The first 45 minutes against Solihull in my opinion was probably the best we’ve started a game here. Then to come out and serve that up in the second half is just whatever after unacceptable is, that is the word for it.”

When asked if the substitution of Craig Tanner just 11 minutes after he came off the bench in the second half against Solihull was down to injury, Watling replied: “No. It's everything I’ve just said to you.”

Ebbsfleet’s form has not improved since the change of manager and Watling admitted his players’ performance needed to be be called “out for what it is”.

“Massively, of course they’ve let me down,” said the Fleet boss at the weekend. “They’ve let the staff down, let the supporters down. They play for the fans. You’re paid to train and play for the supporters, that’s your job. Sooner or later someone’s got to call it out for what it is.

“It’s a difficult one to swallow because if you’re looking at it from their (Solihull’s) perspective, we’ve given them the game, we’ve just handed the game to them. But I’ll go back to what I said, they’re paid to play football, to represent the people of this area and these fans. They haven’t done that. They’ve let them down.

“The FA Cup (defeat at Maidstone) I thought we were horrific, no fight. Saturday was similar to that, we just played against a better team that had good players that could cut us open. It’s a really difficult one.”

One player who was exempt from the scathing criticism was new loan signing Jez Davies, the Salford man was sent off just 17 minutes after coming on in the first half against Solihull.

“He’s the only one I’m willing to come out and protect,” explained Watling.

“He’s a young player, great natural enthusiasm, and will run around. I need to look at it back but going off the cold view that I had - and I was right down the barrel of it - the referee could not wait to send him off and even it up. I’m really disappointed with the officials on that one.

“He’ll come again, he’ll have to learn from it. When you’ve got the advantage, you have to keep it for the majority of the game. It was a turning point but we have to lick our wounds and have a real good look at everything.”

Forward Aaron Cosgrave has extended his loan at Ebbsfleet from FC Halifax for a further month.