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Ebbsfleet manager Dennis Kutrieb says there’s more to come from his promotion-chasing squad.
The Fleet marked the quarter stage of their National League South campaign on Saturday by posting an impressive 4-3 win at Hungerford.
It means they trail early leaders Dartford by three points with three games in hand, with Ebbsfleet recording seven wins and two defeats in the opening batch of fixtures.
Kutrieb always said to judge his team after 10 games and it’s a case of so far, so good, even if the perfectionist Fleet boss believes they could have even more points on the board.
“We’re in a good (place) at the moment,” said Kutrieb. “We started well and then had a little dip that I was not happy with.
“When you think about how many points (we’ve got), we could have had more - Chelmsford, even Havant. I think the only clear defeat was Hampton but we learned a lot out of it.
“Sometimes it brings you a lot when you get a heavy defeat, you think ‘no, that’s not good enough, we need to do it better’. I think the boys learnt really quickly and I’m happy after 10 games.
“The points are good and there’s much more to come if I’m honest. So far, I can say we’re good but they’ve gone now, the 10 games are gone and now we have to (look) to Welling.”
Ebbsfleet host Welling this Saturday at Stonebridge Road. The Wings have improved from relegation fodder to mid-table stability under new manager, Peter Taylor.
They’ve collected 13 points from eight games under the former Gillingham and Dover boss, who took over from ex-Fleet director of football Steve Lovell at the end of September.
But Kutrieb wants revenge on Welling, who beat the Fleet 4-3 in February – a game which proved to be the final game in a truncated 2020/21 campaign.
“It’s a big derby for us, we lost 4-3 there at the end of last season which was a tough one to take,” admitted Kutrieb.
“We have it in our minds and want to make it better to win the derby. We don’t take them lightly, they’ve had some great results in the last few weeks.”
Ebbsfleet follow that with another derby on Tuesday night, at home to Maidstone, who in complete contrast have taken just two points since Taylor was named Welling boss. The Stones had started the season by winning six of their first seven games.
Looking ahead, Kutrieb noted: “The boys will be tired on the Tuesday after a Saturday game, of course we have a fit team and we can perhaps rotate a bit.
“The fans have a massive chance to push our boys for both games, both derbies. Maidstone perhaps with more fans in the stadium but it doesn’t matter how many are there - a derby is a derby.
“We need to make sure we don’t think about Tuesday yet, focus on Saturday and then talk about it after. Hopefully our boys are on top of their performance and can deliver (the points).”
