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Manager Dennis Kutrieb felt Ebbsfleet only had themselves to blame after losing at Barnet on Monday.
The Fleet scored twice through Dominic Poleon but were undone by a Nicke Kabamba hat-trick in a 3-2 defeat.
“It’s always frustrating to concede goals,” said Kutrieb. “What we have to learn at the moment is if you score two goals away, you have to come away with a win.
“That’s my expectation from my football team and that’s what we have to do better.
“The difference was the striker who scored three goals, our striker scored two goals also, but that was a real threat for them up top.
“As a manager, you’re massively disappointed when you go home and think ‘oh yeah, we could get a win’.
“I think Gateshead was just a few little situations and if we did them better then we had a chance but they were much better than us. This game, you could see how many transitions we had (but we made) so many easy mistakes where we could punish them. If you don’t do it then you can’t come away with a win.”
The Fleet’s cause was not helped by a fifth-minute injury to defender Jack Wakely.
Kutrieb was still awaiting news about the on-loan Wycombe man, who was stretchered off and taken to hospital.
That no foul was given for the challenge was one of many decisions made by the officials that irritated the Ebbsfleet boss.
“Definitely the worst referee performance so far this season,” stated Kutrieb. “I think I can say that because that’s just how it is.
“We got the first free-kick second half after 90 minutes, there were always 50/50s and we got booked ridiculously.
“We had a tough injury to take, it was a nasty push by the striker and everyone who’s played football knows it’s always dangerous if our defender doesn’t land properly because he was already in the air when he got pushed. But the referee was not bothered to do anything.
“It is what it is, I said to our boys we can’t waste our time. I said from the first game and I said the same again today, we don’t get anything and we won’t get anything. It will be the same in the next games. But we don’t moan about it, we just need to get on with it.
“He’s massively injured. If you go to head the ball and someone pushes you, you don’t have control of your body when you land, you’re always in trouble. Everyone who knows football knows this is nasty.
“We had a fourth official, a linesman five metres away, a referee five metres away but they’ve never played football in their lives and they don’t understand it. That’s fine. I don’t want to waste too much time about it, we can’t change it.
“We have to look at ourselves. If we concede three goals away from home, we can’t win a game of football. If we have a clean sheet here, at a tough place, we win this game comfortably. If you concede goals then you’re in trouble and that’s the only thing we have to look at, not the referee.”
Barnet’s expansive style meant they often left just one defender back to mark Fleet’s livewire striker Poleon.
There were opportunities to exploit that on the counter-attack, but Ebbsfleet were unable to provide Poleon with enough quality.
“I said to him at half-time that he could score a hat-trick today, easily,” said Kutrieb. “But we couldn’t get the ball in the right areas.
“It wasn’t a plan that the opponent would leave him one v one but you need to have the individual quality to put the ball in the right area for a striker. Some can and some can’t - as simple as that.
“We’re National League and not everyone can see the same picture, have the same ability and put it on a plate. I told the boys at half-time to be ready for this ball because if we get the ball in the right area, he is one v one against the goalkeeper and he will score all day long.”
