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Ebbsfleet boss Dennis Kutrieb says keeper Chris Haigh will learn from his display against former club Concord on Saturday.
Haigh, who helped Concord reach the FA Trophy final during his time at the Essex club, faced his old side for the first time since joining Ebbsfleet in the summer.
It was a testing afternoon for 24-year-old Haigh, who had an early clearance charged down by striker Lewis Simper, but he kept on trying to play the ball out from the back despite audible groans from many home fans.
Like former Fleet keeper Jordan Holmes grew in confidence last season, Kutrieb expects Haigh’s character to shine through this term as well.
“It was a tough game for Haighy,” admitted Kutrieb.
“At the start of the game, the first ball he had at his feet was a mistake, we didn’t concede from it but it was a close decision. He hesitated a little bit too long and when you have it after a couple of minutes you need to dig deep.
“Of course, I could see like everyone else in the stands and the fans, I’m not stupid I can see the same things, that in some spells it was very dangerous. But we scored our first goal from that position because we opened them up on the right side and came through to our left and scored.
“That happens if you can make it but decision making needs to be better as we had some dangerous situations because we hesitated too much or were not confident enough. It was a tough game for him because if you have a decision so early in the game then you need to do it again and again.
“The boys helped him on the pitch. As an (outfield) player you can have such a game and I can sub him off if it’s not his day.
“Chris is a great character as well and he knows better than everyone else that it wasn’t his best game but he will learn from it and that’s what we had last season with Jordan Holmes as well.
“That’s what I said about the whole team, as long as they learn and take the lessons on board and make it better, I’m not concerned.
“We’re only 15 games into the season, there’s still many games to go. They will learn and do better decisions in the season and this won’t happen in three or four months.”
Kutrieb fielded a different formation against Concord, opting to play an extra player in a congested midfield area in a bid to counter the visitors’ biggest strength.
He insisted it’s not Plan B if Plan A doesn’t work but it’s a case of tinkering his formation if required against different opponents.
“We need to have different plans,” added Kutrieb. “We knew they were dangerous through the middle and their full-backs are a little vulnerable so it’s not the same threat when they have the ball there. It was much better as we weren’t open in the middle.
“It doesn’t mean we play that now every week as a Plan B. It depends on the opponent each week. We need to be adaptable and have different solutions for different opponents.
“That was important because second half it was very quiet, we were on top of them and now we can recover before playing Bath, who are another good team that tries to play football, on Saturday.”
Fleet hope to welcome back defender Joe Martin from injury for Saturday’s re-arranged National League South game at home to Bath.
