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Sport

Ebbsfleet United manager Dennis Kutrieb on 3-0 win over Cheshunt, being floored by Craig Edwards and their return in Kent derby matches with Dartford and Welling

By: Matthew Panting mpanting@thekmgroup.co.uk

Published: 05:00, 16 April 2023

Ebbsfleet manager Dennis Kutrieb says the game “deserves better” after ugly scenes at the end of their home win over Cheshunt on Saturday.

Kutrieb was floored by Cheshunt boss Craig Edwards, who was rightly shown a red card by referee Daniel Lamport in stoppage time.

Ebbsfleet boss Dennis Kutrieb - was floored in his technical area by Cheshunt boss Craig Edwards. Picture: Ed Miller/EUFC

Edwards was upset that the referee stopped the game after a foul by Cheshunt’s Billy Cracknell, booked minutes earlier, on Fleet substitute Franklin Domi, which left the latter laying unmoved on the pitch.

“It was sad,” said Kutrieb. “I think the game deserves better.

“I was massively concerned as Franklin Domi went down on the floor with a head injury and I was pretty sure it was a serious injury. We know now he is definitely concussed, we’ve already had the assessment done.

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“The manager was moaning about how the referee stopped the game and I was thinking ‘how can he not stop the game?’ Everyone in the stadium could see it was a massive injury.

“Obviously, it kicked off and at the end of the day it’s football, I don’t like to overplay it now or overdo it. Things have kicked off and I’m fine so I have no problems.”

There was clearly a big desire in the Ebbsfleet camp to avenge the 1-0 defeat at Cheshunt just before Christmas, which prompted excessive celebrations.

Those scenes now appear to have been premature with Cheshunt six points from safety and just four games left to stay at National League South level.

“You could see even the dugout was so aggressive the whole time,” said Kutrieb on Cheshunt. “It was something where you needed to be ready.

“When we went there we lost 1-0 and everyone was on us big time - the fans, the manager, the team were celebrating like they got promoted.

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“We wanted to make sure we got the three points today because that’s how football works. That’s karma. You always need to stay humble and that’s what we will do.

“Every time we play we will always stay humble regardless if we have 100 points or 100 goals.

“What they have done to us when we played there was a different story and you could see now they get relegated, six points away from Dulwich and I’m not sure if they celebrate today again.”

Kutrieb was impressed with his side’s display in the 3-0 victory but warned they won’t have it that easy again next week when they make the short trip to Welling.

“I’m so happy that we could get the win, 100 points,” said Kutrieb. “A 3-0 win at home, a clean sheet, three goals, we could have scored 10. It was an outstanding performance.

“They tried hard, not as a team, individually they had some really good players who tried hard to make something happen but we were good enough to defend and they didn’t have big chances.

“As a manager you always want to score more as it was possible, Dominic Poleon had a few chances, but there’s nothing to moan from me.

“The games are not as easy as they were today. You could see they were a bit spineless.

“They tried hard individually to find something but there was nothing where they could have a spine to say we do this and this if players don’t know what to do on the pitch. This is understandable because they’ve already had over 60 players.

“It will be completely different when we play at Welling. They’ve a very good team. I was surprised that they are not in the play-offs as they have so many good individual players and this will be a completely different game. They will definitely try to show their quality.

“Everyone remembers the game here, they had a very good day, they defended with nine men and they have individually good players. I’m surprised they are not in the play-offs so that’s where I rate them as a team so they will be good.

“They want to show their fans that they are good enough and that they don’t deserve to get booed off or something else that I could see during the season when they played Taunton. They want to show they are better and then we play against Hungerford.

“I don’t know what to expect from the last game. I’ve seen them maybe 10 times and I always like them as they’ve got something and they’ve really tried hard to stay up.”

The Welling game is a final Kent derby for the Fleet. They’ve lost to Tonbridge and Dartford this season and were held at home by nine-man Welling.

Kutrieb had his explanation for that return of points.

“For me there are a few easy reasons,” he said. “When you watch Dartford, for example, they have a few players which already played at Ebbsfleet, they really wanted to show something against Ebbsfleet because it’s a rivalry and everyone knows it and for the fans it’s a big rivalry.

“I understand it but our players are not used to playing Kent derbies, they’ve played somewhere else.

“They get the feeling over the years but we don’t have many players which are really into this situation like a Tom Bonner or Luke Coulson, or even Alex Wall knows this league, he’s played all his life in National League South and maybe he will always stay there so you just need to make sure you understand this type of game.

“With Welling it’s a bit different, they have individually good players and they want to show up on this day. They want to show we can compete with you so it’s maybe 11 good players v 11 good players when we play Welling and Dartford know exactly what it means to play this game.

“There we lacked an understanding of what it means to the fans and the club to play these games and that’s why we lost them as they were all over us in both games.

“Of course, there were a few unlucky things but even with Tonbridge when they played here and got the win it means so much to them to beat us and this is something what we need to understand.

“Obviously, it will be slightly different next season as there are not many teams from Kent, Maidstone will go down. Bromley, I don’t know if this a rivalry, I can’t see it, so this will help us.

“I would love to get more points out of the Kent derbies but we’ll definitely try to turn up against Welling and get another three points on the board.”

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