Ebbsfleet United manager Danny Searle reacts to 2-1 National League win over Rochdale

Ebbsfleet manager Danny Searle’s faith in his players was rewarded on Saturday.

The Fleet went man-for-man against a Rochdale team who played with three up front.

It represented a bold move from Searle but he was confident in his players, and it proved justified as they dominated for long periods of the game.

“We had a choice,” admitted Searle. “We could have sat back and soaked up what would have been a lot of pressure because of the way they do play - and, by the way, they’re very good at it.

“Their manager puts a lot of faith in his players, and I put a lot of faith in my players too. We said let’s go for them, what have we got to lose? Let’s go and have a go at them because if you sit back, like they showed against Wealdstone in the first half in midweek, it can be a very long 45 minutes if you just let them have the ball.”

Rochdale like to pass the ball out from the back but they were guilty of overplaying too many times.

It was something the home side knew was coming, and Ebbsfleet were well prepared to capitalise as Searle revealed the in-depth preparation they went into.

“We set up for the press,” confirmed the Fleet boss. “We went through every single goal kick they’ve taken this season. We looked at every little pattern and in the most part we nullified it.

“You can’t get carried away too much, and this is only an opinion from my perspective and how I like to manage.

“I don’t like to focus too much on the opposition, so much so that we don’t concentrate on ourselves as we’ve got good players and we’re good at what we do. But you have to nullify opposition strengths and you have to identity opposition weaknesses.

“We didn’t know the goalkeeper was going to do what he did and Dominic Poleon would get the goal,