Ebbsfleet United manager Danny Searle reacts to 1-0 defeat to FC Halifax Town in the National League
Published: 05:00, 01 September 2024
Ebbsfleet manager Danny Searle insists it’s only a matter of time before they pick up their first win.
The Fleet remain rooted to the bottom of the National League after Saturday’s 1-0 home loss to FC Halifax.
It’s just one point from six games but Searle has been pleased with the performances in their last two matches, and can see plenty of positives.
“Barring a double deflected goal they haven’t really caused us any problems and we looked every bit as solid as we did at Braintree on Monday,” said Searle.
“We’re just not getting anything in the final third at the minute and it’s tough when you are down there.
“I cannot fault the effort, we didn’t stop, we tried to make things happen and for whatever reason it’s just not clicking.
“You can feel it coming, it’s not like there’s a giving-up mentality in the dressing room. There were a lot more positives than negatives.
“If you go (over the) goals we’ve conceded and chances we’ve missed, you’re thinking I’ve definitely upset someone up there because everything seems to be going against us at the minute.
“This is where you have to galvanise, life’s not easy and if it was then everyone would be doing it.
“There’ll be moments in games coming up that we’ll have our opportunity to seize it and we have to make sure we do that.
“I asked for effort and energy and we go that.”
It’s been a case of fine margins for the Fleet in their past two matches. Dominic Poleon has been thwarted by the goalkeeper in both games, while there was an element of luck about Halifax’s goal.
But on the back of four defeats at the start of the campaign, it heightens the lack of confidence in the squad.
“If we’d have played like that up until this point of the season, I don’t think we’d be sitting on one point, we’d be sitting on more points,” added Searle.
“The issue is it has taken a long time to get to that point.
“We have to build on that now, from a confidence perspective you need to believe in what you’re doing.
“The lads work hard in training every day, they tried to put in the gameplan and to a certain degree they did it well as they didn’t hurt us. Mark Cousins didn’t make any amazing saves today but the issue is neither did their keeper.
Report: Ebbsfleet 0-1 FC Halifax
“We’re trying to build the platform to go forward but we have to stop errors. I thought in the second half we were going to score and the fans were excellent in the second half as they could feel it too.
“The result is a poor result, we’ve lost again. But the performance was better than it was against Woking, better than it was against Barnet and from our perspective we have to build on that.
“I don’t think we set the world alight with our football but we played better football in the second half.”
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Matthew Panting