Ebbsfleet manager Danny Searle praised the club’s fans after grinding out a tense win over Woking on Tuesday night.

Dominic Poleon’s first-half goal proved the difference as the Fleet lifted themselves out of the National League bottom four.

Searle was keen to point out the role that the Stonebridge Road faithful played in getting their team over the line.

“When I first came in, I said it was our responsibility to get the fans going,” said Searle. “Then if we do get into a situation where we need to get picked up, they pick us up, and they did that tonight.

“I don’t think they realise how valuable that is because the boys were buzzing off it. They were cheering every time we pressed or made a tackle and that’s the relationship we need to have.

“We need to be consistent with that because I have no doubt that this team is good enough to do what we need to do, along with the support of everyone around us.

“They make so much noise. We’re not the Chesterfield or the Notts County and Wrexham of last year getting eight, nine or ten-thousand, but they make a lot of noise for a group of fans.

“If they keep doing that then we’ll keep running through brick walls for them.”

It was the first time that Ebbsfleet have won successive league matches this season - and since they were crowned National League South champions last April.

But Searle revealed that stat wasn’t a part of their pre-match preparations.

“I banned the mention of it from the staff to the players,” stated the Fleet boss. “I spoke to some of the senior players and said I don’t want it mentioned about back-to-back wins.

“As soon as you put that element of ‘we haven’t done that this season’ suddenly other things can creep in. The way we started the game, you’d have thought we talked about it all week.

“But it’s crucial. We’re unbeaten in four, the longest run this season, we’ve got back-to-back wins, three clean sheets in four and there’s a lot of work still. We’ve put a foundation in place but that’s all we’ve done.”

Searle conceded that his team didn’t hit the same heights as they have at times during his first three matches in charge.

Nonetheless, the Fleet boss was delighted with what he saw in terms of the character within his squad.

Report: Ebbsfleet 1-0 Woking

“The pleasing part of it was the resilience we showed,” he added. “I said in my pre-match that it’s not always free-flowing football.

“I thought Woking played really well and if I’m their manager I’m probably disappointed I didn’t get something out of the game.

“There were times they could have hurt us but they made bad decisions in the wrong areas to be fair, and gave us the ball back.

“That’s three clean sheets out of the last four games. That’s the standard. We said in the dressing room that sometimes those wins are better than the ones when you win 3-0, as we had to be there for each other and they were.

“The most important thing is it’s another clean sheet, we scored again and got three points.

“We’ve got enough games that we can make our destiny our own. We’re just focused on ourselves and keep focus on winning football matches.”