Ebbsfleet 4 Crawley 4

Ebbsfleet boss Liam Daish refused to criticise his players after two late goals saw them held at home on Tuesday night in Blue Square Premier.

Ebbsfleet led 4-2 with six minute left against a direct Crawley outfit but conceded two late goals – including a stoppage time equaliser.

Keen to focus on the positives from an excellent attacking display, Daish said; “I’ve spent too much of the last few weeks looking at negatives and I can’t do that again.

“Overall our play and the effort we put in cannot be faulted. I thought everyone was superb.

“We conceded early and could have put our heads down but we went on to score four great goals and that’s a big positive for me.”

Robbie Matthews puts the visitors ahead inside four minutes but the Fleet hit back when Michael Gash set up Stacy Long to equalise.

The Fleet were ahead after 17 minutes when Gash collected Jamie Hand’s pass and produced a stunning finish.

Guiseppe Sole started for Ebbsfleet having signed on loan from Woking until the end of the season, and he made it a debut to remember by firing in a brilliant free-kick straight after half-time to put his new side 3-1 ahead.

Crawley pulled one back when Adam Quinn forced the ball home from close range.

The points appeared to be in the bag when Long and Hand combined to set up Shakes for the Fleet’s fourth midway through the second half.

But Jon-Paul Pittman scored with six minutes left and Jon Shaw bundled home the equaliser a minute into stoppage time.