Ebbsfleet boss Dennis Kutrieb says the standard of refereeing is taking away the enjoyment of managing in the National League.

Not for the first time this season, the Fleet were left perplexed by the level of officiating during last Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Wealdstone.

Kutrieb was also booked for a third time this season for technical area misconduct which means he now faces the prospect of serving a one-match ban when Ebbsfleet host Chesterfield this Saturday.

“I got a yellow card ridiculously again, I didn’t say anything,” said Kutrieb.

“I’m on three now already, maybe I deserve one of the three. I don’t know if I’m able to appeal against it.

“It’s getting embarrassing. I lose a little bit of the joy of being a manager because you get punished for things where you never ever could get punished.

“When you feel like that’s unfair, on the pitch, off the pitch, everywhere the same, that’s where me as a person starts to struggle - in this job but in outside life as well.

“If I feel that something is unfair or someone is treated unfairly, I would always step in from outside to make sure it is fair. But this is not right. At the end of the day, we have to get on with it.”

Ebbsfleet’s promotion to the National League has seen a welcome improvement in the quality of opposition, the standard of grounds and the club’s exposure.

But the standard of officiating has been woefully lacking.

Assistant referees barely assist the man in the middle, fourth officials display double standards and more than one referee has clearly been out of his depth in Fleet games so far this season - and they’ve only played eight matches.

“That’s maybe why you’re more disappointed because you expected a better league would need to be a better referee, would need to be a better fourth official and everything else,” added Kutrieb.

“The pitches are better, the stadiums are better, more fans are there, so everything has stepped up but the level of officiating is - maximum - the same.

“If it’s for both sides the same, then I’m fine. But it’s obviously not. I can show you 10 different clips where there’s a different approach in games, and that’s the situation.

“As long as they do the same approach both ways then I’m more than happy and that’s fine for me. But not one way this, one way that.

“It’s far too inconsistent and I don’t know what the reason is for this, maybe we’ll find out one day.”

Chris Solly will miss the visit of Chesterfield after his red card at Wealdstone but returns for Tuesday night’s trip to Woking.

It’s the start of a busy period for the Fleet with seven games in the next three weeks.

“I’m looking forward to it,” noted Kutrieb. “It’s always better for players if we can play and play, focus on the games and not train too much.

“We’ve one week to prepare for Chesterfield and then after that we won’t have much time to prepare for opponents. We need to make sure we do our things for the good teams after.

“Wealdstone had three defeats in a row and beat us so they’re back on track. We got another defeat so we’re four wins and four losses - not good enough from us - but we need to make sure we do it better on the pitch. What we did when we went down to 10 men at Wealdstone, we were outstanding. If we do that for 90 minutes, we don’t need to be worried.”