Ebbsfleet United manager Daryl McMahon was left with a feeling of deja vu after summing up his side’s performance in much the same language as he had the Tuesday game against Whitehawk.
In conversation with BBC Radio Kent’s Matt Cole, McMahon conceded that his side have to improve.
“After getting ourselves in front to concede from kick-off, it was really a schoolboy goal to concede,” he said. “We’re going through a stage of missed opportunities and individual errors that are costing us. It’s not good defending and you can’t keep on giving teams goals, especially at home. I think we need to make this a fortress and it’s not at the minute; we need to turn it into that.”
The Fleet boss pulled no punches in his assessment of his team’s strengths and weaknesses and looked forward to getting some steel back into his defence.
“We need people that are not scared to make decisions, there’s not enough voices. We’ve got a player in Mark Phillips who gives us that and I can’t wait to get him back out on the pitch. When it goes against you, you have to stand up and that’s when you see a real leader. You’re 2-1 up with 10 minutes to go, you should win the game.”
McMahon is convinced he has the squad to do that, however, and insists that his unbeaten side can transform recent disappointing draws into more convincing wins. “I’ve got no doubt we’ll get stronger as we go on. Jack Connors was outstanding, Shields was outstanding and I thought Bradley Bubb had a good shift for his first game. Marvin McCoy put his body on the line and he was ill yesterday.
“But we have to do better. [The fans} are right. That’s not good enough. I pride myself on being honest and I can’t defend the performance today and the performance on Tuesday.”
Fleet’s next game is not until Saturday at Eastbourne before they return to Stonebridge Road for the first of our Kent derbies this season at home to Margate.
“The break will help,” McMahon said. “I think we need to do some serious work and we’ll have three training days this week to do it. Everyone’s frustrated; it has to change and it will.”
Listen to the full interview below.
https://soundcloud.com/eufcofficial/daryl-mcmahon-talks-to-bbc-radio-kents-matt-cole