Ebbsfleet boss Steve Brown felt his side deserved to beat Eastbourne Borough on Tuesday night.

It wasn't a game of many chances but the Fleet created the better ones in the second half.

Charlie Sheringham had a penalty saved by Sports goalkeeper Lewis Carey, who also denied Billy Bricknell from close-range. And it needed a brilliant block to deny Matty Godden the winner in stoppage-time.

Brown said: "Eastbourne leaving here with a point is an unjust result.

"It’s a second half that we’ve absolutely dominated. We’ll do that to another team and win comfortably."

But he added: "That's probably the hardest opponents we’ve had here this season.

"They were set up to counter-attack on us. You’ve got (Richard) Pacquette holding the ball up, you’ve got Elliott Charles who’s big and strong, you’ve got (Gavin) McCallum who can float in the hole and who’s dangerous on his day.

"We spoke at half-time about making this a place that’s extremely difficult to come and we have done that. Defensively, we had to deal with some long balls up to two strong players and a tricky player. We were mindful of the fact they’re a very big side. There were seven or eight plus six-footers there and we coped with that as well.

"It’s another clean sheet and if we keep keeping clean sheets and we keep working as hard as that and creating that amount of chances, we will win far more games than we lose."

Sheringham became the second Fleet player to miss from the spot this season, Godden having seen his penalty saved in the 0-0 draw against Wealdstone in August.

Brown said: "Chas found the net last week (against Hythe) but this week it wasn’t to be.

"He’s absolutely crestfallen, he’s devastated. It puts him top of the scoring charts if it goes in.

"No-one steps up to miss a penalty. We do seem to have more than our fair share of misses, to be honest, but it’s not for the want of trying. It’s something they do practice. They practice their free-kicks and they practice their penalties, but it’s a game of cat-and-mouse and every now and again you are going to miss.

"It’s a shame, because I think we deserved the result. I think that would have made the game even more difficult for them in terms of they’d have had to chase."

The draw left Fleet fourth in Vanarama Conference South, four points behind leaders Basingstoke - who they host in the FA Cup third qualifying round on Saturday.

"I can’t grumble," Brown said. "I can’t go in there and have a moan-up about that. They’ve given me everything in their bodies. We had a tough game on Saturday and we’ve had a tough game on Tuesday night. We’ve come out with two clean sheets, three goals and four points, so I’m not upset about that result or that performance."