Ebbsfleet United 2-2 Salisbury City - Daish speaks about his Fleet future

Highly-rated Daish, whose contract expires shortly, has guided the Kent club to a fourteenth place finish in the Blue Square Premier this season under exceptional circumstances both on and off the pitch - finishing fourteen points above the drop zone.

The Fleet’s renowned spirit ensured that they twice fought back from going a goal down as two headed goals from central defenders Paul McCarthy - his only goal of the season - and James Smith - ensured the Kent club completed their campaign with a draw.

“To be fair it wasn’t pretty today,” Daish told www.kentishfootball.co.uk  afterwards.  “It’s a point overall, I think it was a fair result.

“It’s not the time to start analysing too much, it’s been a long, difficult season and it’s finished now and we’ve done our jobs the best we can, with the circumstances and I can’t ask for anything else from the players.

“They’ve secured this club’s status in the Blue Square Conference, as I say, I keep repeating myself, in very, very difficult times, circumstances.”

Salisbury City had the better of a boring first half, played in warm, sunny conditions at Stonebridge Road.

The Wiltshire side should have broken the deadlock inside the opening five minutes.

A low through ball released striker Matt Tubbs, who left McCarthy lagging behind, but once inside the penalty area his shot rolled across Lance Cronin and past the far post.

Salisbury created a couple of other half-chances, before they deservedly broke the deadlock after 32 minutes, courtesy of Robert Sinclair’s only goal of the season.

McCarthy was in two minds as the ball appeared to be going out for a throw in front of the away dug outs, but Griffin had other ideas and picked up the ball before spraying the ball out to Sinclair down the right.

The midfielder burst forward and after cutting in from the right drove his left-footed shot past the diving Cronin and into the bottom right-hand corner.

A disappointing Ebbsfleet created just one half chance during a boring first half, as striker Luke Moore flashed a left-footed drive agonisingly past the foot of the post, having whistled past the diving goalkeeper.

Fleet goalkeeper Cronin ensured former Gillingham star Sean Clohessy wasn’t going to score on his return to Kent, stretching to tip away the angled effort from the right.

Having played eleven games this month had certainly taken it’s toll on the hosts, but Daish inspired his side to fight back.

That would have been made more difficult had Sam Pearce powerfully headed home Sinclair’s out-swinging corner from the right, instead of heading over.

But McCarthy’s solitary goal of an injury ravaged campaign ensured the Fleet clawed themselves back on level terms after 52 minutes.

Stacy Long’s right-footed corner from the left was met by the Irish defender, whose thumping header at the far post flew into the top near corner from just three yards.

Sinclair’s powerful near post header, following Clohessy’s fierce driven cross from the right, flew agonisingly over the top of the near post.

But there were ugly scenes inside the last ten minutes when a flare was thrown into the Ebbsfleet United penalty area, yards behind goalkeeper Cronin, before a brave steward picked up the burnt out flare and took it away.

Stewards then had to rush into the crowd at the corner of the ground (the open terracing at the corner of the Stonebridge Road/Swanscombe End) as some morons took things too far; and one man then had to be escorted off the pitch, having climbed over the perimeter fence in that section.

These interruptions could have handed Salisbury all three points, as the Wiltshire side grabbed an 84th minute lead.

Tubbs was left unmarked inside the penalty area at the far post and his header floated across Cronin to find the far corner.

The goalkeeper then made a fine smart save to thwart Charlie Griffin, who had cut inside from the right, but at the other end McCarthy’s downward header, following Long’s corner, was tipped over by Salisbury goalkeeper James Bittner.

But Ebbsfleet United earned a deserved point - just three seconds of normal time remaining.

Smith met yet another Long expertly taken corner from the left with his head and celebrated his fourth goal of the season, before the players signed off with a celebratory lap off honour, as fans thanked them for maintaining the club’s status at the top flight of non-league football.

“Difficult game to play, end of season, but we’ve come back twice from behind and kept going and we’ve finished above Salisbury in the end,” said Daish afterwards.

“Fifty-eight points, I’d liked to have got to sixty but for what the lads have gone through the last month, that was our eleventh game in April, it was a point.”

Daish was quick to praise McCarthy, his inspirational 37-year-old defender.

“He’s an example to the younger players, not just as a player, but as a man and he does the right thing, plays the game in the right way,” said the manager.

“That’s why he’s been a good pro, and why he’s played the amount of games he’s had.”

Daish has worked under difficult circumstances this season, both on and off the pitch, and hinted that he will sign a new contact to lead the club again next term.

“I’ve had two quite extensive meetings, talking about that,” he revealed.

“I need to know the whole picture, I need to know. The club will have a future, the club will go, but it’s what sort of future they want.

“I feel we’ve wasted a year off the pitch, I think going on the back off (winning the) FA Trophy was a perfect opportunity to really push on and we’ve missed that for whatever reason and that is really disappointing.

“The club needs to learn from that and the club needs to find a structure, a direction, an input of money (although) the club’s not in the worst case scenario.

“It’s got 9-10,000 members, but we need to be working more off the pitch to back up what’s been going on, on the pitch.

“On the pitch, without sounding arrogant, it’s leaps and strides for moving forward than what’s going on off the pitch.

“I’ve put a lot of hard work and effort into this, along with other people and for me to throw that away, that would be a very hard thing to do and it’ll be.

“But at the end of the day, I need to have some sort of assurances.  I need to know where the club’s going. 

“I need to know what their ambition us at this football club.  I sometimes sense do we need to push on, do we want to go that extra yard to go that extra step.

“The expectations this year (after winning the FA Trophy last May) was (reaching the) play-off’s, because we’ve achieved every year and we’ve progressed every year.

“But we need to progress and look to achieve off the pitch as well and as I say it’s been a disappointing year for me, working in the circumstances when I could have seen a lot of things done better.”

It was public knowledge that Daish was working with a £10,000 per week playing budget this season - but that will be cut next season.

“Without doubt the playing budget is going to be trimmed, everything’s going to be trimmed,” Daish revealed.

“The thing is, every club is running when things are tight, resources are tight.  Everyone’s in the same boat.”