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Ebbsfleet manager Danny Searle is trying to embrace the early-season pressure.
The Fleet have picked up just one point from their first six National League games and remain rooted at the foot of the table ahead of Saturday’s trip to Altrincham.
Searle is confident that his players can turn their form around.
“You’re always under pressure as a manager,” he acknowledged.
“At the end of the day we’ve picked up one point from six games, of course there’s pressure. But we have to embrace that because that’s football.
“You’re either under pressure at one end of the table or under pressure at the other end, whatever the situation is.
“This early in the season the pressure is what it is, we just have to embrace it and keep working hard.
“We’re confident it will turn. The players were talking in the dressing room after the game [against FC Halifax] on Saturday and we can feel it coming. When it turns, it will turn properly.”
Despite a mounting injury list, with Dominic Poleon the club’s only fit striker, Searle refuses to make any excuses.
He knows the onus is on the players to reach the level of performance that they are capable of.
“We started to be a bit braver in the second half against Halifax,” said Searle.
“[But] we’re doing things at times and we’re looking at each other thinking why has he done that?
“Given that, I thought they worked unbelievably hard and, from my perspective, it was much better than Woking and we looked like the team that was going to get something out of the game, especially the last 15-20 minutes when we really went for them.
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“I think that’s all we can do, we’ve got to keep going for teams and being brave.
“It is what it is and we are where we are. We can’t make any excuses about it, we’ve put ourselves in this situation.
“We’ve got to keep working hard to make sure that this ends really quickly.
“If you take the last two games in isolation, we’ve looked more solid and we’ve looked better.
“We look like there’s more energy about us but we’ve put ourselves in a sticky situation because of what we dished up in the first four games.”
Since his arrival at Ebbsfleet in February, Searle has always wanted his players to be on the front foot and play with an intent to attack.
Despite their current predicament, that messaging is still the same.
“It doesn’t change,” stated the Fleet boss. “You probably heard me from the sidelines as there was lots to be positive about against Halifax.
“Take away the catastrophe of the goal in the first three minutes, I don’t think Mark Cousins has made a save of any real note.
“We’ve put ourselves in a good position to win games in the last two matches and we’ve just got to go and build on that and get those three points.”
Ebbsfleet are at home to Aldershot on Tuesday, kick-off 7.45pm.