Ebbsfleet manager Dennis Kutrieb isn’t concerned by their recent run of defeats.

The Fleet looked to have bounced back from a run of three straight losses with back-to-back wins over Slough and Worthing.

But they suffered a second National League South defeat of the season at home to Eastbourne on Tuesday, a game that hinged on one big decision just before half-time when Fleet were denied a penalty and the visitors went up the other end and scored within a minute.

“It’s not a worry in general as I think you need to see the games and how they have gone,” reflected the Fleet boss.

“If you can see if there were similar things then you need to be worried but I can’t see there were any similar things where you should do better or haven’t done good enough or you’re not a threat anymore.

“If you can find similarities when you have a few defeats then it’s a different story, but Tuesday was completely different to every defeat before so I’m not concerned in general.

“You can see that when major players are missing, then it looks a bit different.

“There’s a bit of quality missing in some areas and we try to make it better as a team, but you don’t have the individual quality from the players - they can run the show and make the difference.

“But I’m pretty convinced that if we get the penalty and go 1-0 up then it’s a completely different game.”

Ebbsfleet’s Omari Sterling-James was booked for a dive, when most in the ground thought the referee was going to point to the penalty spot.

Eastbourne nearly scored immediately when they forced a save from keeper Mark Cousins, but they did take the lead from the resulting corner and Kutrieb conceded his players’ frustrations may have led to a lack of concentration.

“It’s very easy for a player to get carried away with things and at the same time it is a problem as well,” he noted.

“If you don’t get the penalty and then there was a foul on Haydn Hollis that we didn’t get, then there was a corner, and after that they scored the goal.

“You could see the frustration was getting bigger and bigger as you think what is the referee doing and it’s the same for me on the sidelines.

“You might be a little bit distracted and then you get punished. That’s why often teams concede straight away after they score because their concentration levels are a little bit low. That can happen, obviously it shouldn’t, but you can concede.”

Fleet were missing three key players. Skipper Chris Solly hasn’t featured since being replaced during the FA Cup defeat to Fleetwood, Greg Cundle has missed the last two matches through injury and leading scorer Dominic Poleon was ruled out through illness.

All three were sorely missed, but should return for Tuesday’s rearranged league trip to Cheshunt.

Kutrieb said: “Solly was replaced against Fleetwood with an ankle injury but he’s nearly back in training.

“Greg Cundle got a heavy knock at Slough and carried on. He’s not far away but he’s just feeling the pain so we need to wait for that to settle down.

"I expect all of them to be back for Tuesday against Cheshunt.

“You can see there are differences in the squad. You say the squad has good depth but there is still a difference between 1 to 24.

“We tried to make the gap smaller so it doesn’t matter who is playing but at the end of the day, especially in those games, you need a bit of extra quality.

“Greg Cundle against Slough, for example, made it happen when he scored the goal because he’s a constant threat on the left and that’s the difference sometimes.”