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Ebbsfleet’s stunning opening day win doesn’t mean they’ve sent a message to their title rivals, according to boss Dennis Kutrieb.
The Fleet scored four goals in the first half-hour to brush aside Tonbridge at Stonebridge Road in emphatic style.
But Fleet manager Kutrieb wasn’t worried about making a statement to their fellow promotion contenders.
“I don’t care about the message to other teams,” said Kutrieb. “We need to play our game, we need to deliver what we’re able to deliver, that’s the most important thing.
“Of course, it’s a high tempo and we want to do it. We will improve during the season, when the boys have more 90 minutes under their belts they can deliver more than they did. But for the first game it was very good.
“If we’d kept a clean sheet it would have been the perfect start, as a manager I always need to find something to moan about. But if someone had told me before the game that we’d win 5-1 then I’d take it straight away.”
Supporters were back in the ground for a home league game for the first time in 533 days.
They certainly got their money’s worth and Kutrieb loved taking charge in front of his own fans for the first time as well – more than a year since being appointed boss.
“Outstanding,” he said, when asked about supporters returning to grounds at the start of this season. “I don’t have the right words for it at the moment. It gave the boys such a big push.
“They are so relieved and all of us are so relieved they are back in the ground. They helped us straight away in the game and that’s what we need.
“We need to stay tight together, it doesn’t matter if it’s a player on the pitch, me on the side or the fans in the ground. We need to stay close together as they can help us a lot during the season.”
On hat-trick hero Dominic Poleon, who produced an excellent 21-minute treble, Kutrieb added: “It was a good performance, I like him. He can score goals and if we’re honest in the first half he can score two more but I’m happy with three. He’s a good striker, he has good pace and he’s here to score goals which is good and what we need.”
The scoreline was the Fleet's biggest-ever opening-day success.
