Ebbsfleet United manager Dennis Kutrieb has spoken of his disappointment that fans weren’t able to attend the goalless draw at Dartford.

Although played at a tremendous tempo with players of both teams giving their all, the North Kent derby between Dartford and Ebbsfleet United ended goal-less. 

Ebbsfleet manager Dennis Kutrieb was aware of the importance of the game for supporters of both sides despite them being unable to attend. “We talked about it for the whole week that it’s a big massive game for us, for the club, for our fans” He said. “(I’m) very disappointed that they’re not here today and I’m very disappointed that we couldn’t get the win because we wanted to give them the win when they’re not able to be here so for this point I’m a little bit disappointed but I’m very happy for the performance from the boys. 

“They tried their best, worked their socks off, tried to score goals, defended together as a team very, very well so for the team performance I’m happy but for the result I’m not happy. At the end I would say if I look at the performance we deserved to win but in football it doesn’t matter. It’s nil-nil, no lose, no win, we have to take it.”

Captain Lee Martin came into the game on the back of an injury but only lasted less than two minutes before having to limp off. “It’s bitter-sweet because you have to make a change after two minutes.” said Kutrieb. “He didn’t seem injured before the game so we thought everything’s fine. The injury was small. It wasn’t a big one. It was a small one two weeks ago so we thought that he was fit for today but he wasn’t so we had to switch after two minutes but (James) Dobson had two really good training weeks so I was a little bit happy for him. 

“We have a big squad, we have a good squad and everyone wants to play and be on the pitch in the starting eleven. It’s another impact when you have a Lee Martin on the pitch and for the second half, Jake Goodman as well. He did very well in the first half and if late in the second half you have corners and free kicks with Jake Goodman in your team it’s very very dangerous for the opponent so I’m unhappy about this but the boys on the pitch did really well.” 

Kutrieb continued “That’s the basics of football. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing National League, National League South or wherever. You have to fight. You have to fight as we did today and you have to do it every week, or every game or every three days. We have to play at Dorking on Tuesday and it’s another tough, tough game. They want to get promoted so we have another tough game so we need to recover now and we can keep going on Tuesday.”

The game at Dartford was the first game for the Fleet for two weeks which has left Kutrieb frustrated. “I was very disappointed about that because the players want to play.” he confirmed.  “They want to have the match day and the feeling of the match day then you have two weeks off.

“We had training on Boxing Day. I don’t know how many players have training on Boxing Day in their life. They were not really happy to have a training session but that’s normal. You want a day with your family. When they have a game that’s fine but when you have to go to a training session it’s a little bit weird but they did and they did it really well and that’s what you expect as a manager of a team.”

Managing in England for the first time, Kutrieb is not used to the coming and going of non-league footballers during the season. He said “I have been here four months and I can’t count how many players want to come here. We get information from their agents, this player or this player or that player. 

“To be honest, I’m not used to it. I have to learn about transfers and windows and so on. Of course, as a manager when you can get good players you are open minded towards it but I tell the boys all the time how we picked them and how we’re happy with them. 

“I think that it’s a little bit different between Germany and England. You can see at Dartford they have six strikers in three months so when one striker doesn’t score they take another one, if he doesn’t score they buy another one but that’s not our work in progress. 

“We want to work with them. We have the confidence that they are good enough to play for Ebbsfleet United. Of course it’s not always one direction. It’s not always up on the top. You have to work on it. We as a club want to work with them. They have to get better. It’s normal. Everywhere in life, when you work the whole day you get better so we want to work with them but of course if there’s a good option or good opportunity we will look at it and we will see.”

Pictures supplied by Dave Budden.