Ebbsfleet boss Danny Searle admitted his players will get to see his angry side if they don’t eradicate certain “characteristics” from their game.

The Fleet suffered their first defeat under Searle at National League play-off chasers Aldershot on Tuesday night.

While it doesn’t diminish Ebbsfleet’s impressive form in the past month, they still sit just three points above the relegation zone ahead of this Saturday’s home game with Gateshead.

Searle knows that if bad habits creep back in then, with time running out in the season, he will have to let his players know what’s expected of them.

“They got a little glimpse of it,” said Searle, talking about his reaction after Aldershot. “If that was our third or fourth defeat in a row, we’re throwing kitchen sinks.

“We’ve talked about credit in the bank and if you’d have said when I first came in that we’d lose one in seven, having won four in a row, we probably would have bitten your hand off.

“Are we happy about Aldershot? Absolutely not. Is it the end of the world? No. We just need to dust ourselves off and move on.

“Am I going to batter the boys? No. We’ve still only lost one in seven which is still good form. It was a poor performance all round and we have to take it on the chin and move on.

“I talk about character a lot and there were characteristics I saw which I didn’t like and we have to address that. Whether that’s by changing personnel or how we set up in terms of who’s doing what, then we’ll look at it.

“We’ll let the dust settle. The boys had Wednesday off so let them go away, kick whatever they need to kick to get it out of their system and we go again from Thursday. It’s all about Gateshead now, this game is done and we move on.”

Like Aldershot, Gateshead are also in the play-off places so it’s another difficult game for Ebbsfleet at the weekend. But it’s one that Searle knows they can deliver in.

“Our supporters were brilliant at Aldershot and we appreciated that they stayed behind to applaud us because we probably didn’t deserve it with the way we played,” said the Fleet boss.

“But that’s credit in the bank with the way we’ve been playing and I’m sure the supporters will be brilliant again this Saturday.

“We’re up against another tough, footballing side so we’ve got a run of games which is going to be difficult for us as they’re good sides. But we’ve also proved that we can play good sides and beat them.

“We’ve got a run of games against teams that are fighting to get out of this league at the right end of the table. We knew this month was going to be tough and that’s why it was important we put points on the board in February.

“We’ve got to bounce back and that’s when you can judge the squad and say ‘what are you like?’ and understand that, as lovely as some of the stuff has been in the last five or six weeks, we’re still in a relegation battle. That’s not changed.

“From our perspective, we’ve got to almost wipe it out of our memories and go and perform against Gateshead.”

Defender Luke O’Neill missed the Aldershot match through injury, having come off during the win over Rochdale at the start of this month.

His replacement, Hayden White, set up the Fleet’s goal in midweek and will be better for having some minutes in the tank.

“We’re waiting for an assessment on Luke,” said Searle. “Hayden stepped in and did well to set up the first goal but he hasn’t played a lot of football recently.”