Ebbsfleet United manager Steve Brown admitted he felt there had been a lack of quality in his side’s performance as they endured a frustrating 1-1 draw at home to Bath City on Saturday.

After taking the lead through Shane Huke, the Fleet dominated the first half, but fell away in the second and allowed Will Salmon to equalise for the visitors.

It was the third draw in three home games this season for Brown’s side, and the manager admitted morale in the dressing room was low at the final whistle.

“The side is very disappointed”, Brown said.

“I said to the players afterwards that, for me, once you get your nose in front in a game like today, you should never relinquish the lead.

“That’s another draw now where the players have walked into the dressing room and it’s felt like a loss.

“These games have got to be wins as, once you take the lead, it should be a clean sheet all day long and a 1-0 win.

“I thought we had the better of the proceedings in the first 45 minutes.

“You look at moments in the game, such as Anthony Cook going through one-on-one twice but not scoring, and then Bath haven’t really had any opportunities other than a ricocheted goal.”

He added: “There was a lack of quality within the players today, if I’m honest.

“Especially in the second half, the players made wrong decisions.

“The passing wasn’t very good and the pitch was quite sticky, which meant the ball didn’t zip off the surface; we’ve got some players who are good with the ball and it doesn’t help us.

“I look at the second half and they’ve had one shot on target.

“I told the team not to give set-pieces away in our half and yet we gave away seven or eight free-kicks, which was the sum total of Bath’s efforts.”

Despite performing better away from home this season, Brown denied there was any more pressure on the team to win in front of their home fans.

He said: “There’s no more pressure at home, I think the only difference from playing away is that teams will come here and not really try to win the game, instead just trying to stop us from winning.

“When we go away, the onus is on the opposition to try and win.

“Today I’ve missed Thalassitis on international duty, which we were fully aware about when we loaned him, and I’ve got Ben May – one of the most proven target men in this league – out injured, which is a huge miss.

“Those aren’t excuses, as we played the same strikers against Tonbridge (a 3-0 win in the Kent Senior Cup) and played extremely well.

“Up until today, I think the performance levels have been excellent and we haven’t quite got the points return we deserved but today was the flattest we’ve been.”

The Fleet head to Basingstoke on Saturday hoping to get back to winning ways.

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