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Ebbsfleet boss Dennis Kutrieb was left bemoaning his team’s defending after they narrowly avoided an early FA Cup exit on Saturday.
Two own goals by Slough keeper Rohan Luthra ensured the Fleet twice came from behind to draw 2-2 at Stonebridge Road in the Fourth Qualifying Round tie.
While the on-loan Cardiff keeper helped Kutrieb’s team out at one hand, he had questions about his own team’s defending after they conceded after just 62 seconds.
“The worst start in the world is conceding a goal after one minute, and they’d already had a shot on target after 15 seconds,” said Kutrieb.
“We recovered quite well and could have scored in the first half but then we scored straight away in the second half.
“Then it was the most annoying thing which we have to avoid for Tuesday(‘s replay), that we conceded straight away.
“We put them under massive pressure, it was all us and then we conceded to go 2-1 down and that’s not good enough.
“That’s where we have to play the game tactically better and don’t concede the second goal. If it’s 1-1 then there was so much time left for us to score a second goal and they were not doing much late in the game, they were just defending.
“We definitely need to improve on Tuesday but we don’t need to turn around every single stone in the sense that we were that far away from being good.”
On the Fleet’s slow start, Kutrieb dismissed any suggestions that it was down to attitude.
“It was just a set-piece where we didn’t defend well enough,” he reflected. “We can always read into things and say it was for this reason or that, but the fact is they had a set-piece and we didn’t defend good enough.
“We have to admit it can’t happen, we can’t concede after one minute, we needed to mark man for man and we would have been fine but we just slept.
“We had enough chances to win the game. We’re still in the cup and we can do better on Tuesday and make sure we get a win there.”
The Fleet boss admitted it was a specific tactic to put set-pieces on keeper Luthra - and they plan to do the same in their midweek replay.
“We always do our homework, it was obvious to see and everyone in the stadium could see,” said Kutrieb. “It will be the same on Tuesday.
“It felt like we had 90 per cent possession, we had numerous box entries, some crosses, some shots, some cutbacks but still couldn’t get it over the line.
“We created some chances, obviously you want more but if an opponent defends with nine players in the box and one up top it’s difficult and it will be the same on Tuesday and we need to find solutions.”
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One bright note for the Fleet was the return of leading scorer Dominic Poleon, who featured for the first time since coming off injured at Woking on September 19.
“It was short notice that we realised he was ready to go,” said Kutrieb.
“He was ahead of his own schedule, it was going to be that he needed one or two more weeks but he was very professional to come back (early).
“In the last minute we could make the call that he can play some minutes and build up for the next game or Saturday. It’s good to see that he came through it.”
