Positive Ebbsfleet manager Harry Watling believes it’s only a matter of time before his team fire on all cylinders.

The Fleet have gone 332 minutes without a National League goal after being held at home by fellow strugglers Boston on Saturday.

But Watling reckons the floodgates will open once they get it right.

“The ball’s got to go in the goal,” said Watling. “When the ball goes in the goal, it lifts the mood, it changes energy. I think you then get a taste for it.

“In a minute we’re going to wallop somebody. I know football, in a minute we’re going to wallop someone because we’ll score early, then we’ll score again, then we’ll get a taste for it.

“That’s what we need in order to turn it but the other things you have to respect in football are the small wins, the small margins.

“The players speak in there as well, and the unanimous message was you have to respect that point, it’s something we can build off.

“I would like us to have more in the final third, I’d like our fans to have more to see attacking that goal in the second half of games but we have to try and build on it and march forwards.

“We’re not on double figures in terms of points yet. We’re not playing scintillating, fast, front foot attacking football. We’re having to grind results out and grind performances out. It’s not going our way.”

Hosting the team above them was a major opportunity for Ebbsfleet to kickstart their season.

While they picked up a point, it was a game devoid of clear-cut chances at either end.

“Every game you don’t get maximum points from you can view as an opportunity missed,” conceded Watling.

“We’re bitterly disappointed we haven’t taken all three.

“As soon as the final whistle goes my job as a manager is to try and galvanise through a message – we haven’t been beaten, so we have to look at it like that. But we should be winning these games, ultimately.

“The message to the players is what do you want to do? Look at it as two dropped or a point gained? That’s completely an individual perspective.

“We have to look at it as a point closer to the line to keep us up. Where teams have dropped points today and we’ve got a point, we have to look at it in a small positive.”

Read more: Ebbsfleet 0-0 Boston match report

The Fleet started with a 3-5-2 formation and, while injuries forced their hand, they made a number of changes to shape and personnel in a bid to find a breakthrough.

Watling admitted he’s still trying to get the right combinations.

“It was a dogged performance,” he said. “It wasn’t the purist game of football I’ve ever stood and watched. We have to assess it in a positive way and say it might be a point at the end of the season that makes the difference. You have to build off a clean sheet. I want us to win every single game of football.

“We changed the system a couple of times to try and find the gaps within their team. They were trying to figure us out and we were trying to figure them out.

“We’re trying to find something. I’m trying to find the players in the right combinations who can maybe rediscover form or young players going in who play with that natural enthusiasm for the game.

“We need to go and win games of football. What we do every day needs to reflect what goes onto the pitch but right now that’s not happening. You have to trust what you’re doing, what your staff are doing and what the players are giving you every day.

“It will turn. We’ve been putting patches of performances together but not one complete 90 minutes. There were issues before I got here and there are issues here right now.

“What we’re trying to do is plug the gaps, stop the water from coming in and stop it from completely sinking. That’s going to take some drastic actions.”