Nikki Bull admitted his Margate side played into Ebbsfleet's hands on Bank Holiday Monday.

Gate were a goal down inside 13 minutes and went on to lose 4-0.

It was one-sided stuff at times, with the home side always looking dangerous and Margate rarely troubling Nathan Ashmore in the Fleet goal.

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Bull said: "The better team won, no doubt about it.

"They started very well but we played into their hands too much. When you’ve got Phillips, Winfield and Clark as the three centre-halves, we made a point that we couldn’t keep going long because that’s meat and drink to them.

"I played with Mark Phillips at Brentford and with Dave at Wycombe at Aldershot and their strengths are aerially.

"I think the goal knocked us and even before that, they hit the post in the first 90 seconds and from that point, I’m not sure we really believed that we would win the game.

"We started resorting to hitting the ball long, which is not what they were sent out to do.

"Goals change games and Ebbsfleet, in particular, are a side that if they get their noses in front, they’re very hard to peg back and they put us to the sword at times.

"We set up 4-4-2, they’re 3-5-2 so they key for them is the wide men, Shields and Cook. I thought that’s how they’d go with those two. Being at home, the onus was on them.

"In effect, it really is a back-three because Shields and Cook are not going to do the most defensively.

"For us, the game plan was if it’s 0-0 after 20 minutes it’s a good result for us but they came out of the traps, front foot and we never got to grips with it.

"Once they scored, we went off-script and started doing things we don’t practice and that resulted in it looking a bit disjointed at times. I can’t argue with the scoreline."