Ebbsfleet United manager Steve Brown had mixed feelings about only taking one point from Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Eastbourne Borough.

After Charlie Sheringham had a first half goal ruled out, the Fleet fell behind to Gavin McCallum’s deflected strike before Kenny Clark equalised with a thumping header.

This left Brown feeling frustrated his side were unable to claim a win, yet also satisfied with their performance.

He said: “I think it’s pleasing we’ve come from one behind, as it’s not something we’ve done.

“We’ve gone 1-0 down at Whitehawk and Basingstoke and not come back, so from that perspective it’s pleasing.

“But when you throw in the chalked off goal and the fact we’ve hit the post, had one cleared off the line, and in the last 20 minutes we’ve had great opportunities through Cook, Godden, McMahon and Sheringham, for me it is two points dropped.

“You look around the rest of the league and there’s been points dropped everywhere.

“That’s kind of how this league is this year.

“Someone’s just asked me who I think our best player was and there wasn’t one, it was just a very good, hard-working team performance that I felt deserved three points.

“People drop points every week and we have had one loss in 10.

“I’m bored of saying it and I think it’s four goals conceded in those 10 games.”

Brown praised his side for the way they coped with dead ball situations in the Eastbourne game.

He said: “Eastbourne put us under immense pressure from set pieces today and from open play they literally had the goal - I don’t remember Brandon Hall having to really pull out any saves.

“From set pieces, we defended our box brilliantly aside from the first 10 minutes when Richard Pacquette had a free header.

“We pride ourselves on not giving too many goals from set pieces.”

Having recently been through a rough patch of form, Brown had previously rejected the idea his side were low on confidence.

And the Fleet chief felt Saturday’s performance demonstrated this.

“I don’t think confidence has been an issue”, Brown said.

“The point I’ve been trying to make is that people have been chipping away at us as a group and the group is in a good place.

“You’ve got to understand, we’re in a place where we look at statistics, clean sheets, points gained and results in the last 10 games and we’re in a good place as a squad.

“What you saw today I thought was a very workmanlike performance from a very solid team that dug in a defended when it had to.

“Like I said, it must have been at least a dozen set pieces we had to defend today from underneath our crossbar and I felt we did it very well.”

On the 1-1 result, Brown added: “I don’t know what people think about us getting a point at Eastbourne.

“I’m not bitterly disappointed about coming away with all three, but I wanted all three and I felt the performance deserved all three.

“When you’ve got a ref that doesn’t help in reversing something that shouldn’t have been reversed (Sheringham’s offside goal), you’ve had a possible hand ball for a penalty and shots that were decent opportunities, you can’t be too upset at you’ve created.

“I felt we were the better side today, so we go away and we put this one to bed as quickly as we can, as we’ve got a very tough game on Tuesday.”

The Fleet host Gosport Borough tomorrow night, with Brown confirming injured duo Michael West and Ben May will most likely not be seen before early January.

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