Ebbsfleet United manager Steve Brown felt he witnessed his side’s confidence return as they won 2-0 at Staines Town on Saturday.

After a winless run of four games, the pressure was on Brown’s side to get three points at the Conference South’s bottom club.

Goals from Anthony Cook and Daryl McMahon either side of half-time secured a welcome three points, with the boss feeling his players’ performances improved as the game went on after a slow start.

Brown admitted: “I thought we started poorly. The first 10 minutes of the game was a great start from Staines, who were unlucky not to take the lead.

“As poor as we were, I thought they were great.

“Calum Willock was very unlucky with his strike that hit the underside of the bar and that was our let-off.

“We’ve had games where we’ve deserved to win with chance after chance and we’ve hit crossbars and missed penalties.

“I’ve always said after games that I wasn’t too unhappy, as we’d done enough in my eyes to be just a finish away from winning a game - and goals make a huge difference to games.

“So that was our let-off and today perhaps has addressed the balance a bit, because after those 10 minutes I thought we settled down.

“We got the goal, which was a good arrival from Cookie at the back post, and then I thought we were relatively safe, as I don’t remember too many opportunities for Staines.”

Fleet’s decisive second came three minutes after the break from the spot and Brown admitted McMahon’s successful conversion had eased the tension within his squad after their recent winless run.

He said: “We got the penalty in the second half and I felt we relaxed.

“There was almost a sudden release of pressure and we played with a bit of freedom.

“We broke on them very well and had opportunity after opportunity in that second half.

“The scoreline could have been bigger than it was.

“It resulted in a bit of composure, a couple of good goals and then some confidence and belief, which I can’t believe we were lacking in but we were.”

The win came just seven days after Brown’s side had disappointingly lost 2-1 to Hayes & Yeading and the Fleet manager now hopes they can string some more victories together.

He said: “I didn’t think we played well last week. I thought the tempo was poor, and considering the position we’d have found ourselves in had we won, it wasn’t the performance I expected from the players.

“It came out of leftfield a little bit, as we’d played well without getting the points on the board.

“Today we’ve managed to get the two goals and I think we’re a very good side when we get ourselves in front, which you saw in the second half.

“Poor performances are not something we enjoy as a group - and they are something you have to bounce back from.

“There’s an element of confidence and morale that gets knocked a little bit and it takes a performance like today to bring that back again.”

The challenge now is to reproduce it in front of the Stonebridge Road fans, something they now have the chance to do, starting with this weekend’s meeting with Bath City.

Brown added: “We’ve now got Bath at home and Farnborough at home, so it’s two games where I expect that kind of performance again.

“The rewards of getting wins against those two teams will put us really close, in my opinion, to the guys at the top of the table.

“Today was about three points as opposed to performance.

“We were gritty, we were dogged and when we got our noses in front we relaxed and played.

“Maybe that’s the case and we need to be more gritty, more dogged and more determined until there’s a break in play that means we can settle down, as this team will create chances, no matter who we play.

“The clean sheet is also something I look for and it’s something we pride ourselves on as a group that we keep clean sheets as a platform to start from.”

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