A frustrated Stuart Maynard claimed poor decisions from the officials saw his Wealdstone side come away with nothing from a 2-0 loss at Ebbsfleet United on Saturday.

Ousseyou Cisse’s first-half strike and Dominic Polean’s penalty just after the hour mark secured the three points for Dennis Kutrieb’s side, ending a five-match unbeaten run for the Stones.

“I think their free-kick is one of those; we should have had a couple of fouls very similar to that free kick, which didn’t get given," said Maynard, speaking of the decision that went against his side, leading to the Ebbsfleet opener.

“What you then have to accept is the referee is going to referee the game like that. When they get that free-kick, you think 'You’re changing it and just making decisions off the back of what you feel is a foul, rather than what you haven’t in previous moments of the game'.

"But that’s no excuse. The wall breaks and the ball goes straight through the wall, and if it doesn’t do that, you’ve got to be brave. You’ve got to take one in the face for the team in moments like that."

Despite the defensive blunder for the first goal, Maynard leapt to the defence of his players for staying in the game for as long as they did but raised concern about their ability to convert chances.

“It’s just frustrating because at this level, you can say for 80 minutes that we had the ball, and we weren’t just around the back; we were on the edge of their 18-yard box and in their final third,” added Maynard.

“We just lacked quality. We said it before Tavs (Tahvon Campbell) went away. We said it would be interesting to see how much we really do miss him.

"In the last couple of months, he’s probably been our most exciting player and most creative player in the sense of making something happen out of nothing, so today we really missed him.

“It’s only our quality that has let us down today. To come to Ebbsfleet and have the ball for 80 minutes against a possession-based team - the lads have been brilliant, so I can’t question anything about their application or effort.”

Maynard’s attention now shifts to his side’s FA Trophy endeavours, with a trip to Chelmford City on Saturday, before making the trip to Southend United on January 16 for another mid-table National League clash.