Ebbsfleet manager Dennis Kutrieb has warned there will be more ups and downs in the months ahead as they battle relegation.

The Fleet produced a much-improved display to win 1-0 at Maidenhead on Tuesday night and move themselves out of the National League relegation zone.

But there’s still plenty of work to be done if they are to avoid an immediate return to Step 2 football and Kutrieb won’t get carried away when his players pick up points.

“That’s our job,” said Kutrieb, who came in for plenty of stick from Fleet fans following last Saturday’s poor display at home to Hartlepool.

“Obviously if we lose, we get abuse and if we win, we can celebrate and get praise. That’s just how the game is.

“Our team now understand we have a relegation battle and that means we’ll win some games and lose some games, and that will go to the end of the season.

“If someone expects that now we’ll win all our games, that’s totally wrong. Everyone would love it but it’s the wrong approach. We need to stick with these boys as they will leave everything on the pitch.

“There will be days like Saturday when we go home totally disappointed, similar to me, and angry about a 1-0 defeat.

“But we are getting closer, I thought it was a bit of an unlucky defeat as it was a wonder strike that went in via the underside of the bar. At Maidenhead, Mark Cousins tipped their shot onto the bar.”

Ebbsfleet returned to their favoured 3-5-2 formation and showed plenty of positive intent at Maidenhead.

Kutrieb agreed there was a clear improvement in their performance.

“It was much better going forward,” he noted. “We tried to create, we tried to play football in the right areas at the right times, not too dangerous and not too sloppy.

“We were composed and mature, especially in the second half as apart from that late chance at the near post they haven’t had many chances. I never felt really threatened or that there could be a goal and with the wind advantage I thought they would put us under more pressure in the second half.

“I thought we did well there and we took our chance to score with a nice finish.”

Dominic Poleon and Rakish Bingham partnered each other up front for the first time since March, while the return of Ben Chapman and Omari Sterling-James was a deliberate move by Kutrieb.

The Fleet boss explained: “The two strikers link up very well. They’re good football players, they understand each other and have played together for two years.

“They know what they want to do and where others are, that’s sometimes a bit difficult for a new striker like Dominic Samuel but sometimes you need to go back to basics and the things you know have worked in the past.

“That’s what we did, we started with Sterling-James and Chapman as wing-backs as they were successful for us last season at times. We made the decision to go a little bit more with the lads from last season.”

Ebbsfleet now travel to bottom side Oxford City this Saturday looking for back-to-back wins for the first time this campaign.

They could ease their relegation worries with another victory and Kutrieb knows the importance of the game.

“It’s nice momentum now but we need to pick it up again on Saturday,” he stressed. “The players know exactly how important the game is this Saturday, just as Tuesday was.

“If the game at Oxford is 0-0 for a long time then we’ll have a good chance to win it. We need to be ready for that and the fans need to stick with us.

“We’ve had a great away performance with a win and now we need to back it up on Saturday and then we can see where we are after that.”