Daryl McMahon praised Ebbsfleet's performance at Aldershot and then challenged them to maintain those standards in every game.

Fleet became only the third team this season to stop second-placed Shots scoring at home when they picked up a well-deserved goalless draw at The Rec on Saturday.

A neutral wouldn't have known which team was fighting for the title on a day when Ebbsfleet created the better opportunities and looked a totally different side to the one knocked out of the FA Trophy by lower-league Warrington in midweek.

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"It was a very good performance," McMahon said. "We just lacked the goal we probably deserved. We played some terrific stuff against an excellent team and we could have nicked it.

"We need now to be more consistent. We've shown we can compete at this level, comfortably, when you come to a place like this and perform like that.

"If you look at us against all the bigger sides, the ex-League sides, we've performed really well against every one of them. Wrexham away, we played really well and were unlucky, Macclesfield away, I know we lost but we played really well, today really well, Hartlepool at home, Orient at home, we played well against all those teams.

"We need now to be consistent in all the games, not just the glamour games.

"We have to grow and compete all the time. You can't have a day off, mentally.

"Going back to the Warrington game, it was disjointed because we knew we had better players - but better players don't win the game if you're not a team. It was an individualistic performance and today was the total opposite of that."

Fleet's result was the only draw in the National League on Saturday and it leaves them four points outside the play-offs with 16 games to go. So can they finish in the top seven?

"I think it's an unrealistic expectation for us," McMahon said. "We've just come into the division, I've asked us to be competitive and we are. We'll try to finish as high as we can.

"When you look at the sides below us, there's much bigger clubs than us, who have been in the league a lot longer and we're just trying to build.

"I'm not in a rush to get it wrong. It's not that I don't want to get in there, because I want to get in there if we can, but I don't think there's any pressure on us to do that.

"We'll play, perform, get the right people in, keep the right people and build the club."

McMahon confirmed Ebbsfleet have ended their interest in Tranmere striker James Alabi but that centre-half Kenny Clark should return in six weeks after a scan on his injured knee revealed no ligament damage

Striker Darren McQueen, meanwhile, is expected back from his long-term knee problem within the next two months.