Daish optimistic Ebbsfleet will continue improvement (From News Shopper)

Daish optimistic Ebbsfleet will continue improvement

10:01am Monday 29th October 2012 in Football By David Byrom

EBBSFLEET United manager Liam Daish believes his side are close to turning the corner after some recent impressive performances.

The Fleet defeated Tamworth 1-0 on Saturday thanks to a well-taken goal from Tom Phipp to make it three games without losing, recording three consecutive clean sheets in the process.

Daish’s side had been on a disappointing run of seven league games without victory and they still lie in the Conference relegation zone.

But they are now just three points from safety after the Tamworth result and the boss was in a positive mood about his side’s victory.

Daish said: “We’re not there yet, as we’ve still got quite a bit of work to do, but we’re turning a corner and that’s pleasing.

“There’s still a long way to go yet.

“I thought we were excellent today, we put in a very workmanlike performance against a side that’s done well this year and it’s always a hard place to come.

“We started really well and could have gone ahead when we hit the bar from close range and then I thought we had a good shout for a penalty.

“I thought we defended when we had to.

“You’re always going to need to defend when going away from home and we did it properly.”

Daish reserved special praise for a defence which came under considerable pressure towards the end of the game, yet refused to crack.

“We got a clean sheet and backed up what we did last week (a 1-0 win over Woking in the FA Cup), which shows it wasn’t a one off,” the Fleet chief said.

“We’re keeping clean sheets and we’re getting miserly, we still need to get a little bit of confidence going forward but it’s a great win.

“It’s a massive result for us, especially on the back of last week.

“It’s no mean feat winning here.

“You’ve got to pressure teams and I think we did that today.

“When the ball went forward, we closed up behind it and we forced mistakes from them.

“I was pleased with everyone as we defended properly and shut them down well in midfield, as they’ve got some good experience in midfield, and up front we were always a handful.”

Next up for the Fleet is Carlisle United in the first round of the FA Cup and despite the long journey to get there, Daish is looking forward to the trip.

Winger Louie Soares will be available for the tie after renewing his loan from Grimsby Town for another month.

Daish said: “I’m still thinking there’s more to come with Louie, but he was unlucky not to get his penalty today and he’s got a lot to offer.

“We’ve had two decent results.

“The lads have worked really hard for each other and they’ve got their rewards, which can only breed confidence.

“We’re going up to Carlisle as massive underdogs, but we’ll have a little bit of belief in ourselves and you never know what’ll happen.

“That’s why they’ve got the FA Cup, as it can turn out all sorts of results.”

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