Ebbsfleet United manager Danny Searle reacts to 2-1 win against AFC Fylde in National League

Ebbsfleet boss Danny Searle admitted he had mixed emotions despite taking another huge step towards safety on Saturday.

The Fleet beat AFC Fylde 2-1 to move to within four points of safety in the National League.

But Searle felt his team performed better in their two previous games – draws against Dagenham and Southend – than they did against Fylde.

“Mixed emotions to be fair, obviously it was massively important that we got three points which we did so that’s that box ticked,” said Searle.

“I think from a performance perspective we could have made it a lot more comfortable for ourselves than we did. Then you give them a sniff and they get a goal and suddenly it's panic stations for three or four minutes before we settled down again.

“I can't criticise the lads for that because they did their job.

“If you said to me we're going to play poorly to the end of the season and win every game I'd probably take that but I think from our perspective we've said in the dressing room that that's not our standard.

“If you look at the Dagenham and Southend performances, they were much better performances than that. But at the end of the day, we said at all costs we must win the game and we did that.”

Ben Chapman scored twice, the first a cracking left-foot strike after cutting in from the right.

Searle knows the midfielder has that quality in his locker.

“I think Chappo's got quality from both sides and we know he's competent with both feet as he does it a lot in training,” said Searle.

“He's a threat from crossing situations and obviously he's got a decent strike on him as well. He nearly had a second one in the first half from a similar angle as well.

“Am I delighted it happened? Yes. Am I surprised? Not really because I know what