Ebbsfleet manager Dennis Kutrieb admitted the challenge provided by Cheshunt in National League South was exactly what he expected.

The Fleet were on the wrong end of a 1-0 scoreline after an early penalty for the home side, who then used every trick in the book to frustrate the Fleet and hold on to what they had. It worked and Kutrieb admitted his team need to find more in the future.

“You could see it was a tough game for us,” said the Fleet boss. “We tried hard again. Honestly, I told the boys before the game we had to be careful because this is exactly what can happen.

“I was expecting this kind of game, this nasty and so many battles, sitting on the floor waiting for treatment and the referee not taking any action and that’s exactly what we tried to prepare the boys for. Obviously, it was not good enough.

“We had a few chances but didn’t take them. It’s not like we bombarded them and had lots of chances but (there was still) enough to put one in the back of the net.

“We need to find ways how to dig in a bit deeper to get results out of these games.”

It’s successive league defeats for Ebbsfleet, who have now lost five of their last seven games in all competitions.

Kutrieb believes his squad will stick together and can bounce back quickly.

“Every defeat is concerning as you can always do better,” added the Fleet boss.

“But you can see there are a few clear and obvious situations why this is happening for me at the moment and what exactly goes against us.

“We need to stick together as a group and learn from these defeats, learn from how the opponent celebrates afterwards, all these small little things where you need to be aware as a player. We need to step up and make sure we are ready.

“A few players will be back for Boxing Day but, regardless, we have to step up. The most important thing in football is to win your battles on the pitch and make sure you don’t get affected from any decisions.

“We’ve had it twice in a row where we’ve been affected by decisions so we need to shake it off and go again.

“The performance can dip from a few players, there are so many different things, it’s not just about the other team it’s about your team as well.

“Sometimes you need a little bit of luck, you need luck with decisions from referees that we don’t have since I’ve been here at Ebbsfleet. It’s very obvious at the moment again and we just need to get on with it.

“You can’t get affected from an early penalty decision, even if everyone in the stadium could see what was happening there. You have to turn up, get your head right, the mentality right and if something like this happens, you can’t get frustrated or distracted.

• Report: Cheshunt 1-0 Ebbsfleet

“You need to stay focused and determined in the game. I’m not worried that if we play these kind of teams we are always struggling, that’s not the case as we’ve had enough games already this season where we overcame it and did a very good game.

“At the moment we just need to make sure we deliver the basics right, better than the opponent, and from there we can start to build up our play and go in the box and try to create chances and score goals. It’s the second game in a row where we haven’t scored and we need a bit more determination to say it’s time to score again.”