Ebbsfleet boss Dennis Kutrieb felt luck was not on their side during the 1-0 home defeat to Dagenham on Saturday.

It was a game of few clear-cut chances but while the Fleet were unable to convert a golden chance in stoppage time, Dagenham promptly went up the other end and found the winner.

“I think it was just luck today,” responded Kutrieb, when asked what was missing from his side’s performance. “We played a game that we would normally win eight out of 10 times, if we play that game 10 times we win it eight times, that’s my opinion.

“From this point of view, I can’t say too much about what was missing today but in general what is missing is confidence but not today as we looked confident, composed on the ball and we didn’t give the ball away often in stupid areas so there were not many times we got hurt on transitions.

“All over, the team performance was much better and I was positive. Yes, the most important thing is that you get a result but even with a 0-0 draw I wouldn’t sit here and say I’m happy because in my opinion we should have won the game.

“We had our chances and we needed to score a goal, regardless of whether their goalkeeper needed to work hard enough. If you have those chances, I have the one at the top of my head where Dominic Poleon lays the ball off for Franklin Domi - that has to be a goal for me. It’s exactly how we conceded on Tuesday against Southend.

“That’s where you need to work harder, it’s always very easy to say we need to work harder and be fine, but that’s exactly what we need to do.

“You can see it’s not falling for us at the moment. We’re in a period of bad luck. Mark Cousins was sure that the ball was not over the line (for their goal).

“There were many occasions where we should have got something but haven’t and that’s just (the run) we are in. I don’t want to moan too much or find excuses as it doesn’t help us. We need to be focused and do the things for us in the right way so we’re not moaning about things that we can’t change anyway.”

Kutrieb wants his team to grow despite their bad run of form which now extends to just one win in 13 games. They’ve also gone 15 matches without keeping a clean sheet.

“I think we dominated the game over 90 minutes,” he added. “I don’t know whether the ball was over the line or not but it’s just the situation we’re in.

“We have to accept these defeats and our mentality can grow. We don’t feel sorry for ourselves and we’ll do things in the right way.

“For me personally there isn’t a massive difference between a point and zero points but it feels better and it feels that we got something. If this game ends 0-0 I’m sitting here bitterly disappointed as we should have won the game.

“After 92 minutes I was still convinced that we’d score our goal and get the win because that’s what we deserved, but you don’t always get what you deserve in football. You just need to be patient enough to overcome the situation and work harder again.

“Everyone in the stadium could see we were the dominating side, we had our chances and we needed to put one away. Just before they scored, we had our chance where I think we should have scored. I was happy with the performance, even from a defensive point of view. I’d like to say it was a clean sheet but regardless it was something to build on.

“As a manager the most important thing for me is not to lose the picture just because we conceded a goal in the last minute of the game. If I just watch the stats it’s worrying but if you saw the game then you shouldn’t be worried as we played a great game.

Report: Ebbsfleet 0-1 Dagenham

“We need to stick together, the group, the players, everyone who’s connected to the football club. The boys did nearly everything good, apart from scoring the goal. All our defensive players had a good game.”

Ebbsfleet are at home to Cray Wanderers in the Kent Senior Cup on Tuesday night and are then without a league game until they visit Hartlepool on November 11.