Ebbsfleet United manager Danny Searle won’t hesitate to show squad his angry side if bad characteristics at Aldershot become a habit

Ebbsfleet boss Danny Searle admitted his players will get to see his angry side if they don’t eradicate certain “characteristics” from their game.

The Fleet suffered their first defeat under Searle at National League play-off chasers Aldershot on Tuesday night.

While it doesn’t diminish Ebbsfleet’s impressive form in the past month, they still sit just three points above the relegation zone ahead of this Saturday’s home game with Gateshead.

Searle knows that if bad habits creep back in then, with time running out in the season, he will have to let his players know what’s expected of them.

“They got a little glimpse of it,” said Searle, talking about his reaction after Aldershot. “If that was our third or fourth defeat in a row, we’re throwing kitchen sinks.

“We’ve talked about credit in the bank and if you’d have said when I first came in that we’d lose one in seven, having won four in a row, we probably would have bitten your hand off.

“Are we happy about Aldershot? Absolutely not. Is it the end of the world? No. We just need to dust ourselves off and move on.

“Am I going to batter the boys? No. We’ve still only lost one in seven which is still good form. It was a poor performance all round and we have to take it on the chin and move on.

“I talk about character a lot and there were characteristics I saw which I didn’t like and we have to address that. Whether that’s by changing personnel or how we set up in terms of who’s doing what, then we’ll look at it.

“We’ll let the dust settle. The boys had Wednesday off so let them go away, kick whatever they need to kick to get it out of their system and we go again from Thursday. It’s all about Gateshead now, this game is done and we move on.”

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