Ebbsfleet United boss reveals mixed emotions despite rescuing late Hartlepool United draw

It's not often you will score a 95th minute equalising goal away from home and come away slightly unhappy but that was the case for Ebbsfleet boss Kutrieb following the 2-2 draw with Hartlepool.

Kutrieb’s recently promoted side were the better team for much of the 90 minutes at the Suit Direct Stadium – stark contrast to what their form of just one win in 10 games heading into the contest had suggested.

The away side might have crumbled when Emmanuel Dieseruvwe gave Pools the lead inside six minutes but Kutrieb’s men fought back within minutes through Billy Clifford’s strike before going on to enjoy a positive display.

But despite their superiority in the game, Hartlepool almost clinched victory themselves when substitute Jake Hastie grabbed what appeared to be a 90th minute winner, only for Kutrieb’s side to hit back again with Dominic Samuel’s late strike.

Despite their late equaliser, however, the German was still left feeling a little disappointed not to have taken all three points.

“It’s mixed emotions because I don’t know how we didn’t get the lead,” he said.

"I have to be happy with one point because if you go down in the 89th minute you think ‘here we go again,’ but you could see the determination and body language from our boys was outstanding and they came back into the game at 2-2.

"Maybe tomorrow I’ll be happy with a point because it’s a tough place to come – a relegated side from League Two, you can see it’s still a proper place to be, so we’ll take the point, but how we have not won the game is far beyond me because we had so many chances.

"You could see after they scored the first goal early in the game it was all us. We dominated the first half, we dominated the second half, so I’m really happy with the boys even though I wanted two more points, but we have to be humble enough to take this point.”