Ebbsfleet United manager Danny Searle on National League relegation battle ahead of away trip to Accrington Stanley to face FC Halifax Town

Ebbsfleet manager Danny Searle has urged his players to “tidy up” their game in the final two matches of the season.

The Fleet’s National League survival bid is going to the wire as they sit just two points outside the drop zone.

Despite taking 22 points from manager Danny Searle’s first 11 games in charge, the Fleet have suffered back-to-back defeats.

It’s small margins that have cost them, particularly in Saturday’s home loss to Altrincham, and the Fleet boss knows that while performances have been good, it’s what happens at either end of the pitch which matters now.

“I know it sounds stupid but other than the silly goals we conceded we were the much better side on Saturday,” said Searle.

“But unfortunately, you know as well as I do, that football is about not conceding and scoring and we were poor at both ends of the pitch.

“They only had three shots on target, it makes it even worse to a certain degree as even at 2-0 down we could have still won the game comfortably. It is what it is, we have to dust ourselves down and move on.

“It’s about tidying up. If we took a quarter of our chances on Saturday we would have been successful. That’s going to be the message on Tuesday, just be more clinical and be brave in the penalty area.

“If we play with the level of performance and intensity and aggression that we did on Saturday, I remain confident that we’ll be fine.

“At Solihull, we deserved to be beaten, and you’d argue on Saturday we did because we didn’t score any goals. But that performance didn’t deserve to lose the game. We have to take it on the chin and focus on Halifax.”

Ebbsfleet’s game away to Halifax is being played at Accrington’s Wham Stadium, which means extra travelling for the Kent side.

But at least the