George Elokobi said Maidstone’s derby defeat at Ebbsfleet came down to fine margins.

The Stones lost 1-0 on Tuesday night with defender Ronny Nelson heading the winner from a second-half corner.

It was a second derby defeat in four days, following a 2-1 loss against Tonbridge at the weekend, and saw Elokobi’s side drop a place to 10th in National League South.

Elokobi was disappointed to concede from a restart - not for the first time this season - while his team lacked the creative spark to break down the hosts.

“It’s fine margins,” said the Stones boss.

“It’s about both boxes in terms of our intentions, how we wanted to nullify their strengths, and then restarts, we have to defend better, and the players know that.

“That’s football. We’ve got to get that right. In local derbies, we’ve got to try and keep a clean sheet, and we haven’t created enough to win the game.

“However, can we make sure we go home with a point? That’s not to be.

“We need to go back to basics, we need to make sure we start doing the right things in both boxes, making sure we’re psychologically ready in terms of our concentration levels and be on the front foot and win first contacts and second contacts.

“We have to make sure we look at the balance, the dynamics in terms of how we’re penetrating and how we’re trying to create chances to score goals.

“Are we making the right movements at times in terms of the crosses came in but we didn’t quite make the right runs, and these are the things we need to address.

“We were doing this three games ago but we’ve gone away from it and it we have to reinforce these principles back to the players.

“My job is to make sure I keep drumming into the players how we scored in the other games.

“We need to be disappointed.

Report: Ebbsfleet 1-0 Maidstone

“Again, our fans came out in their numbers to support and we’ve not given them anything to cheer.

“We have to pick ourselves up. Yes, I know it’s two defeats in as many games, however, we need to dust ourselves off and ensure we get back to work.

“We’ve lost again and that’s hard to take.

“However, I can’t fault the players’ efforts, their commitment. It was there to see.”

Maidstone enjoyed an unbeaten October, taking 13 points out of a possible 15, but they’ve started November with successive defeats.

They were also in the wars, with TJ Bramble soldiering on with a knee injury after Elokobi had made all five substitutions, while Antony Papadopoulos was set for stitches in a head injury.

“It’s important we don’t be looking back,” said Elokobi.

“We played those games in October, that’s gone, we’ve started November and we’ve not managed to pick up a point from six and we need a reaction.

“Our job now is to make sure we look at those who have knocks and try and patch them up.

“And then we look at the squad to see if we can utilise it as best as I can.

“In terms of the numbers I’m not blessed with it right now because of the injuries we’ve got.

“However, it is what it is and I’m not making any excuses. The ones that haven’t had a lot of minutes, they should be ready.”

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