Ebbsfleet United boss Kutrieb didn't feel his side rode their luck to all three points

Photo Credit: Maidenhead United FC

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Ebbsfleet United boss Dennis Kutrieb didn't feel his side rode their luck to all three points against Maidenhead United, despite the hosts striking the crossbar on three occasions over the course of the game.

Fleet came into the game off the back of a damaging home defeat to Hartlepool United, a result that left them in the bottom four, so they were targeting their trip to York Road as a chance to pick up points. And that they did, thanks to Dominic Samuel's 82nd minute strike, something Kutrieb referred to as a 'golden goal', simply because it gave Maidenhead very little time to get themselves back on level terms.

On Saturday, against Hartlepool, Anthony Mancini's long-range effort flew in to give the visitors the points, while on Tuesday, Ashley Nathaniel-George's blistering strike from a similar range was tipped onto the crossbar by Mark Cousins. These are the fine margins that can dictate the outcome of a fixture like this, however, Maidenhead really only have themselves to blame for not killing off their visitors before half-time.

After Nathaniel-George left the crossbar shaking, Shawn McCoulsky failed to find the back of the net from around the penalty spot after being picked out in the middle, while Casey Pettit rolled a shot against the post when he probably should have picked out the bottom corner.

Reece Smith saw his strike in the second half pushed behind by Cousins, while Chanka Zimba missed with a free header in the six-yard box shortly after coming on as McCoulsky's replacement.

However, it would be unfair to say Maidenhead had things all their own way, and the Fleet boss was at pains to point out how ‘even’ the game was in his post-match interview with BBC Radio Kent. He said: “it was massively important for us to get the three points. That's what I said on Saturday, we knew we needed a win on Tuesday.

“The boys took everything we told them on board, and we defended very well. We played with the wind first half and against the wind in the second, so it was a really different game for us in the second half. But the boys did very well as a team, they sat deep and finally managed to get a goal, it was a golden goal, and we got three points.”

He added: “I'm not sure, because we had some good chances through Dom and Declan before they hit the post. I would say it was even.

“We had a shot that went in against us on Saturday. For Nathaniel-George's shot, it's a chance because it's hit the crossbar, but for me it's not like a chance, chance because it's a shot from so far out. Today, Cousins managed to get his fingertips to it and it went against the crossbar, on Saturday it went it. But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter because we need to get points on the board.

“We knew we had to win this game. On Saturday, it was different, I felt like we didn't want to lose that game. But from the start today, the mindset was completely different. We wanted to win the game. Obviously, you have to suffer here because they are doing very well, and you see where they are in the table.

“Lately, they haven't had many games, but we knew we had a game on Saturday and sometimes it can be a bit difficult if you haven't played for a while. It's sometimes a bit more difficult and that's what you could see from them. We were able to start on the front foot and over the 90 minutes I felt very comfortable that they wouldn't score many goals.”