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Ebbsfleet United boss Dennis Kutrieb reacts to FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round win over Sevenoaks Town

Ebbsfleet boss Dennis Kutrieb was a happy man after his side reached the FA Cup First Round on Saturday.

The Fleet will be ball number 68 in Monday night’s televised draw after second-half goals from substitute Greg Cundle and Dominic Poleon knocked out lower-league Sevenoaks at Stonebridge Road.

Ebbsfleet's Toby Edser is closed down. Picture: Ed Miller/EUFC
Ebbsfleet's Toby Edser is closed down. Picture: Ed Miller/EUFC

“I’m 100 per cent happy,” stated Kutrieb. “Two-nil, clean sheet, scored two goals and could have scored many more.

“It was a very intense game, a big challenge for us. They sat back with 10 men and wanted to hit us on the counter.

“We defended well and they had one and a half chances and we had loads so from this point of view I am very happy.”

Sevenoaks came with a gameplan to soak up pressure and hit the Fleet on the counter attack.

As Kutrieb expected, the Isthmian South East side raised their game.

“They’ve already played seven FA Cup games so they had to defend for something,” added the Fleet boss.

“It’s maybe their game of the season and you can put a few percentages more of effort in.

“They (stuck) to the gameplan and didn’t do anything else but in a normal league game it’s different and you will see them different as well.

“We limited them to very little as normally they are a very good side when they are able to play football so they had not much space or time to play and that was important to us. I said if we don’t take them seriously, we will definitely struggle.

“Normally when you play two leagues below it’s easy for you as a manager to get carried away as well and think we don’t need to prepare or we are better.

“I saw four games of them and I could see clearly patterns of what they want to do, where they want to play the ball. They switched formation to 5-4-1 and sat very deep.

Fleet's Jack Paxman on the ball against Sevenoaks. Picture: Ed Miller/EUFC
Fleet's Jack Paxman on the ball against Sevenoaks. Picture: Ed Miller/EUFC

“For us it was very clear as we needed to win the ball back when we lost it and make sure that Chris Solly had a good game because he will be in a few challenges and he was. He was man-of-the-match and it was very deserved as I don’t know if he did one mistake.

“We needed to bring Greg Cundle on so we could make a difference finally.”

As for Monday evening’s draw, Kutrieb isn’t getting too excited.

His side lost at Leyton Orient at the same stage last season but he wants to avoid a big Football League side if possible.

“I don’t hope for anything,” said Kutrieb. “If I can pick, I pick the lowest-ranked team in the cup.

“I always like to win games and if we play against a strong League 1 side the chance to win there is not as easy.

“From my point of view in the cup it’s always the lowest-ranked team as it’s the biggest chance to go through but I can’t change it anyway.”

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