Dennis Kutrieb was all about his side’s clean sheet as Fleet scored two at the other end to see off Eastbourne Borough at the Kuflink Stadium.
“We asked for a clean sheet today and I think that was the most important thing,” Kutrieb told BBC Radio Kent’s Matt Cole. “Especially after the last game where we conceded more unnecessary goals. You could see in the lineup that we were a little bit more defensive than the games before. I said we will score our goals all day long because we’re good enough as a team but we need to make sure that we don’t concede. It was a well-deserved win, not such offensive power like we’ve had in the past but we had a good spell in the second-half where we should have scored the second goal earlier.
“[A clean sheet] is the most important thing in football. We can always talk about winning games or scoring goals but if you want to be successful, I said from the first game we need to make sure we don’t concede and today was much better. I couldn’t see many clear-cut chances [for Eastbourne]. One good save from Louie Moulden in the second-half from 25 yards, but in the box not a clear-cut chance. As I said during the week, we have Sefa back now, even Alex Finney who had his first minutes on Wednesday and came through without any injuries, so he’s available now and back. So that’s another centre-back and if you have your centre-backs on the pitch it looks better.”
Fleet were sent on their way by an excellent free-kick by Craig Tanner, with the win sealed by Dominic Poleon’s late goal and the boss liked what he saw in his front runners.
“It’s a worldy,” Kutrieb enthused of Tanner’s free-kick. “I saw it many times in training so we asked him if he can do the same in games as well and so finally he stepped up. But you can see his quality all over the pitch, he’s a very good player for us. His technical abilities when there’s a ball through most of the times he’s involved. Dominic Poleon’s was a calm finish but it was a great pass from Paxman as well . Then if Dom puts the defender under pressure, he always has a chance to score. He could have got one or two more before but I was happy with his performance today. We needed to take Elliott off because of the yellow card – I was not sure of the referee today because I couldn’t see a plan or what he wanted to do or if there was a line or whatever so I was a little bit scared of a sending-off. So we took him off straight away at half-time. Dom had the same work rate as Elliott and worked very hard for the team, same with Shaq, outstanding work rate.”
The only downside to the day was an injury to Tobi Adebayo-Rowling which followed on from Alfie Egan’s one at Bromley in midweek.
“I haven’t any information so far,” said Kutrieb of the former Eastbourne wide man’s injury. “He limped off and I’m concerned… maybe not so much like I was with Alfie Egan. They told me there’s something wrong with his knee as well, similar to Alfie, so I don’t know but my gut feeling is hopefully it’s a little bit better. But we need to see the assessment tomorrow if it’s bad or not too bad but hopefully not too bad. As long as Tobi has played he’s always a big threat for us and it would not be very good news if he would pick up a big injury.
“We’re still concerned about Alfie and we’re waiting for the result of a scan to tell us a little bit more but it doesn’t look good.”
A long trip to Bath is next on the Fleet’s agenda as the team look to string together a run of positive results to the end of the season.
“You don’t need to be a manager to know if there’s 13 games left and you’re far away from the top of the table then you need to start a run,” said Kutrieb. “That’s what we have to do and we need to make sure we don’t concede. Bath is a tough place to go, everyone says it. I’ve never been there but they will definitely be prepared for us.
“We know we are strong at home and can get the wins. Slough was a little bit unlucky but normally when you look at our home form, it’s maybe promotion. But if we look at conceded goals, if we look at the stats for our away form maybe we’re not a promotion side at the moment. That’s the reason we always need to work hard on everything. I was proud of the boys because they don’t turn up and think it doesn’t matter if we win or lose, they really want to win games.
“It’s all about points – we played some great football even at Havant in the first 60 minutes. I would say we played better than today, but we managed not to concede today and score two goals. If we had managed that at Havant, I don’t think we’d have conceded four goals. As a management team we try to find the right solutions always and if we have to make decisions, then we will make decisions.”
