Ebbsfleet boss Dennis Kutrieb claimed it was “embarrassing” that the officials failed to spot a foul in the build-up to Chesterfield’s winner on Saturday.

The Fleet’s resistance was finally broken with seven minutes left against a team that went top of the National League after Armando Dobra’s bagged the only goal of the game at Stonebridge Road.

But Ebbsfleet felt Joe Martin was fouled off the ball by Dobra during the build-up, with the Fleet defender booked for his protests by referee Paul Johnson.

Kutrieb, who was himself serving a one-game touchline ban after collecting three yellow cards this season for technical area misconduct, was not impressed.

“I’m suspended, I can’t watch a game of football, we’re not allowed to speak about referees but how he cannot see the foul in the build-up play, for me, is embarrassing,” said the Fleet boss.

“I get all the pressure and everything else but as a referee, and a linesman even better, you just need to watch. You don’t need to play or pass or make decisions on a game with the ball in the middle, you just need to watch the players. How they’ve not given a free-kick for us - I’ve already seen the clip on top of this - it’s just embarrassing.

“Apart from that, they put pressure on us in the second half and we had to suffer. We had a good goalkeeper and we defended very well as a team but going forward was not good enough from us.”

Kutrieb was not happy with his team’s attacking play.

Ben Chapman’s shot which was diverted away for a corner was their only effort on target during the 90 minutes and they struggled to get out of their own half at times.

“When we did it (kept the ball) first half we always looked good and sharp and that we could create something,” said Kutrieb.

“But I think decision making especially in the final third was very poor. It’s easier just to stick to the plan and go with your patterns than try to find individual solutions and try something special.

“It was a strong opponent so sometimes you think as a player you need to do something different but you don’t need to. You just need to focus on the basics and that’s what Chesterfield showed us. There was nothing special at all, it was all basic – just passing, try to get in the right areas, and try to make good decisions going forward.

“That’s what we haven’t done because we tried to do something special which is always difficult. We need to go back to the basics and focus on the basics and make sure we keep the ball and do things the right way.

“It was good defending off the ball, the shape worked quite well for us and they couldn’t open us up. It was good goalkeeping as well but it wasn’t clear chances when they passed the ball in behind and were one on one with the keeper.

“They have individual quality so they can open you up because they’re a good team but we defended well and the shape worked well.”

But for all that good defending, Kutrieb knew that his team should have offered more.

“There’s two sides in football, the defending part and the attacking part,” he added. “For the first time this season we haven’t scored a goal so it was not like how have we not scored, it was more it’s not good enough going forward.

“We had a good chance with Omari in the first half when if he gets it on target then it’s a goal, and we had a header at the end but it wasn’t enough. We need to make sure we get both ways right and not just defending or attacking.

“I said if we get a clean sheet then we win the game but it was the opposite as it was their first clean sheet of the season.

“We showed some big weaknesses of theirs in the video session on Friday but we couldn’t exploit it as we weren’t good enough going forward.”

Report: Ebbsfleet 0-1 Chesterfield

Kutrieb made seven changes for the Chesterfield game, although two were enforced with Chris Solly and Franklin Domi both suspended, the latter after reaching five bookings this season.

The Fleet get an early chance to bounce back at Woking on Tuesday night when both Solly and Domi could come straight back into the line-up.

“It was just trying to win the game against a strong physical side,” said Kutrieb on the seven changes. “Everyone who played had good physicality which is what we needed and that worked quite well.

“I’m looking forward to Tuesday. We can put everything in to make it better and get the win at Woking.

“It’s another physical side, they were in the play-offs last season so it will be a tough challenge but we’ll try to prepare our boys to go there and win the game.”