Ebbsfleet United manager Danny Searle reacts to 4-1 National League defeat at Aldershot

Manager Danny Searle will remind his Ebbsfleet players they need to play with more purpose following the midweek defeat at Aldershot.

The Fleet took an early lead but lost their way midway through the first half before falling to a 4-1 defeat in the National League.

Searle felt there were times when his side needlessly put themselves under pressure in the first half.

“There were a lot of things across the pitch where we could have been better and we have to put it down as a really bad night at the office,” said the Fleet boss.

“The disappointing thing for me was that we knew what they were good at doing and we worked on stopping that. For 20 minutes, we did stop that. But then we switch off for some reason and stopped doing what was getting us success.

“I thought we messed around with the ball a little too much at the back at times, and unnecessarily so. We’re all clear that we want to keep possession of the football but there were times when we were in good, positive positions and we ended up back with our goalkeeper.

“That’s not what we’re about, I don’t want us to be about that. I want us to affect the final third. They’re a very good side and they’ve got a chance (of winning promotion) to be fair to them.

“We need to pass the ball with more purpose. There were times in the game where we made passes for passes sake and we haven’t really been doing that.

“We’ve been quite effective going forward and we need to look after the ball a bit better.”

The first two Aldershot goals both came from short corners.

It’s been unlike Searle’s team to give soft goals away. Having conceded just four goals in his first six games, that tally was doubled in just 90 minutes.

“We’ve been very good from set plays and we’ve backed players to