Tudors boss takes '˜full responsibility' for thrashing at Ebbsfleet

The Tudors were still in the game at half-time, trailing by just one goal, but an injury to James Potton forced Brennan into a change of personnel.

He decided to push two players up top and switch to a 4-4-2 formation, but the change back-fired spectacularly as Ebbsfleet ran riot with five second half goals.

“I’ve got to take full responsibility because I made the wrong decision at half-time,” he said. “Potts went off injured and I tried to go toe-to-toe with them but we were outclassed in the second half.

“We tried to match them up 4-4-2, so I take full responsibility for the defeat. But what I can’t take full responsibility for is a potentially leg-breaking challenge and an elbow from their front two players, and neither player was even yellow carded.

“I thought it was a tight first half and I thought that the referee was poor towards us; he gave the big club everything, but I’m not going to blame the referee.”

Despite his frustration at a number of robust challenges from the hosts going unpunished, Brennan admitted that the league leaders fully deserved the win.

“Full credit to Ebbsfleet, because we aspire to be at that level defensively, but that isn’t going to happen with the injuries we have players that we have at our disposal at the moment,” he said.

“Ebbsfleet show that if you want success you have to put your money where your mouth is, and it shows how well we are doing this year to still be in the position that we are. It’s scary how far we have come as a football team.

“I’m proud of the work ethic of the players and I don’t think that any of them shirked their responsibilities, so we will lick our wounds and continue to work hard in training.

“Our season is still alive – I said the other day that Saturday was a free game for us, and the outcome of this game wasn’t going to decide our season.”