The points haul from Sutton United’s past two away games has been identical, but boss Paul Doswell’s sleep patterns have been very different.

He was fuming after a dire show at Whitehawk at the end of August ended in a 2-0 defeat, but he was enthusing after United narrowly missed out to Ebbsfleet United on Tuesday night.

And it could have been even better in north Kent had Craig Dundas not scuffed a last-gasp penalty that would have earned a deserved point against the unbeaten favourites for the National League South title.

The match ended on a sour note when Bedsente Gomis was sent off in the melee that followed Dundas’ miss, and Ebbsfleet took the spoils from a 1-0 win.

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Doswell said: “There were very few positives to take from Whitehawk, because we were poor.

“Since then we could have beaten Gosport 5-0, and with the same sort of team we have played a very good Ebbsfleet team and matched them.

“We probably cancelled each other out, which is encouraging for us. We have played worse than that and won, but against Ebbsfleet we looked like a good team, and we deserved a point.

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Cross over: Dan Spence in the action at Ebbsfleet

“So from what I’ve seen against Gosport and Ebbsfleet, as a manager I can go to bed and rest easily.”

He added: “There are 32 games to go, and if we match the intensity and quality from the past two games, we will be in the play-offs. And that’s what we want, to get in the top five.

“We don’t have a squad of 32 players like Ebbsfleet, so we will never compete during the season against that, and it has been proven time and time again that the team with the biggest and best squad will win it.

“But we do feel we can be one of the next four teams, and there is a lot of confidence taken from the Ebbsfleet game.”

Doswell also refused to lay any blame at the feet of Dundas for the miss that sparked Gomis’ dismissal.

It would have marked 88 goals in 377 appearances for the United legend, and his fourth goal of the season.

Doswell said: “Craig normally goes high to the corner and he said in the dressing room afterwards that he miss-kicked it and it’s gone low.

“He has apologised, but you cannot criticise someone for standing up to take a penalty and missing it – Chris Waddle has missed them, Stuart Pearce has missed them, and they are good players.”

United go to Weston-super-Mare this weekend ahead of the FA Cup second qualifying round at Bishop’s Stortford on September 26.