Ebbsfleet United manager Steve Brown witnessed his side waste countless chances in Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat to Basingstoke Town in the third qualifying round of the FA Cup.

The hosts went ahead through a Charlie Sheringham header just after the break, but Basingstoke took advantage of the hosts’ ineptness in front of goal to come from behind and win with goals from Chris Flood and former Fleet player Liam Enver-Marum.

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Chris Flood equalises on 72 minutes

A miserable afternoon for Ebbsfleet was capped in stoppage time when Joe Howe was red carded, with the boss admitting the final result was hard to take.

Brown said: “Football is a wicked game and you can dominate for 70 minutes, but if you don’t focus and keep concentration for the full 90 then things like that can happen.

“I thought the second half on Tuesday night (0-0 against Eastbourne) was one-sided, but I lost count of how many goals their keeper kept out today. He was outstanding.

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Liam Enver-Marum is mobbed after scoring the winner

“There must have been 10 decent opportunities and we’ve got one goal to show for it.

“Is it down to poor finishing or great goalkeeping? I’d say it was a bit of both.”

He added: “There was some superb reaction saves.

“I don’t know what more we could do other than hit the back of the net.

“Most managers will say we’re creating chances, but that’s no consolation for our supporters.

“At the end of the day we’ve created enough opportunities to win this game and that’s a hard pill to swallow.”

“Sometimes in football there’s peaks and troughs, ups and downs.

“Every now and again you get a result like this where it’s unjust.

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Joe Howe gets his marching orders

“We will play far, far worse than we did Tuesday and far, far worse than we played today and win games.”

Although Ebbsfleet drew a blank midweek and missed numerous openings on Saturday to win the cup game, Brown remains optimistic about what his attackers can offer.

“Those strikers will score goals and create chances, but you will have days when they don’t score or should score more than they do”, the boss said.

“I thought we should have beat Eastbourne and I thought we should have won today.

“Basingstoke are top and Eastbourne are just below us in the league and we’ve dominated both games, so in that respect as a barometer we’re doing well.

“But everyone knows football is a results based business.

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Steve Brown's mood is summed up perfectly by this picture

“No one wants to go out (of the FA Cup), especially in the manner we have.

“But there’s no problem of us picking the boys up.

“Today we’ve had a wonderful performance for 70 minutes and I’ll drive home tonight not quite understanding how we’ve lost the game.”

Brown’s men travel to Hemel Hempstead Town on Saturday where they will be looking to recapture the form and goal scoring prowess which has enabled them to occupy a play-off position after 11 games in the Conference South.

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