Ebbsfleet hit six of the best against Hampton on Saturday but boss Dennis Kutrieb still wasn’t overly impressed.

The Fleet remain on course for the National League South title after stretching their lead to 11 points at the top with a 6-2 win at Stonebridge Road.

But the two goals conceded irked their manager, who was left demanding higher standards from his team in defensive areas.

Kutrieb didn’t want to sound arrogant but knows there are still areas for his players to tighten up on.

“I don’t think it was that easy a game, as you could see, they were able to play football,” he said.

“We needed to make sure we were ruthless and that’s what we have done. I’ve been happier after games because we haven’t played a great game but that is almost arrogant to say after six goals scored.

“We have had a good game going forward but two goals conceded is too many. You can’t concede two goals as you can’t always rely on strikers to score five goals between them and then Toby Edser on top of it with the sixth.

“We need to defend better as a team. It’s not about the goalkeeper, the back three, back four, whatever.

“It’s just we need to be up for it from the first minute and last minute. We can’t give anyone the chance to get back into the game as we did when they scored the second goal.

“Going down 1-0 so early can cause us many problems as we’ve seen earlier in the season so there we have to do better.

“Obviously, I’m happy we scored six goals. I think it was a great game of football, a great game to watch.”

The Fleet are really cranking up the pressure on the teams at the top. It was an eighth victory in nine games and comes during a period when Kutrieb’s men are playing every midweek.

They travel to St Albans on Tuesday night, with the Fleet boss taking it game by game.

“That’s what we have to do, that’s our job,” he said. “It’s always easy to get carried away after seven wins and then maybe have a blip because you didn’t get a win at Chippenham.

“I said to the boys that’s okay, I take that, because we haven’t conceded, we still played a good game but we just couldn’t manage to put the ball in the back of the net. This happens but it won’t happen often as we saw again on Saturday.

“If we don’t concede then we will be fine so that’s why I am happy but I also have to criticise us on Saturday because you can’t concede two goals.

• Report: Ebbsfleet 6-2 Hampton

“We’re in a tough period. We’ve played two away games with I don’t know how many hours we’ve travelled and now we’re finally back at home. Sometimes it takes a few minutes to get going again. Warm-up is fine and training is fine but every game the opponents are delivering great performances against us.

“Hampton tried really hard. Teams are turning up and they want to beat us, they want to show us how good they are. That’s why we have to be up for it.

“We’re in the middle of a strong and tough period for us and we just need to tick the box off, have another win and get ready for Tuesday.”