Ryan Peters was scathing in his assessment of Maidenhead United’s performance at Ebbsfleet United on Saturday after the Magpies capitulated to a concerning 4-0 defeat.

Maidenhead expected to be challenging for promotion alongside the likes of Ebbsfleet and Maidstone United this season. Instead, they’ve lost to both of those sides on consecutive weekends and find themselves only three points above the drop zone in 18th place.

Once again Maidenhead were too easy to play against, too easy to create chances against and too easy to score against.

While at the other end, Peters admitted they were struggling to show composure and take their chances – a recipe for trouble at any level of football.

The Maidenhead boss accepts recent results and performances have been well below par. But he stressed the coaching team – and players – were doing everything they could to find the answers and try to snap this run of three straight league defeats.

He said they were looking at a triallist and hoping to bring in three new players across defence, midfield and attack. Interestingly, he added that certain players had refused to go out on loan or move to another club, something that had thwarted their progress on this front.

“At the moment, playing four at the back, every chance the opposition seems to have seems to lead to a goal,” Peters told Scott Hargreaves. “So, there is a need now to get more defenders in, there is a need now to get more players in and there is a need now to change things to get a result.

“We are most definitely trying. It becomes tough. Some of the players we’ve asked to go out on loan or to move on are not going to do so at this time. And of course, the players that we’re trying to bring in come at a premium, so it is tough.

“We’ve got a triallist coming in and hopefully we will get the next Josh Popoola or Liam Dulson coming in. But we’ve got to ride through this and hopefully get out the other end.”

Peters has been surprised by the poor performances of some of his players this season, admitting they’re miles off the levels they attained under him as the team finished seventh last season.

Saturday’s performance began relatively brightly but soon tailed off. Ben Chapman scored twice to make it 2-0 at the break and then added a third from the penalty spot in the closing stages before an own goal capped off a thoroughly miserable afternoon.

He said the goals the Magpies had given away were ‘crap’ and that the chances they’d created had been ‘skyed over the stands’ - a damming assessment.

“When you give away the goals that we did in the first half, really crap goals as usual. It makes it a hard day,” he said.

“We knew it was always going to be tough, and we knew we’d have to ride our luck at times. But look at the goals we’re giving away under no pressure.

“It probably sounds like I’m making excuses but we’re low on confidence and because we’re low on confidence controlling the ball seems to be harder at this moment in time. I don’t think they (Ebbsfleet) pressed amazingly well in the second half. They almost sat off because they knew we were going to give the ball straight back to them and we did.

“We started quite brightly and had some opportunities. But our opportunities are being skyed over stands right? There is a quality aspect to it and we’re lacking in quality. We have an Ebbsfleet side that can bring Samuels off the bench.

“There is a clear difference between the two teams. They’ve got a fantastic manager and a fantastic group of players.

“There are question marks over myself and others, and I completely get it because we find ourselves in a perilous position and we’re not playing very well. The fans have every right to be livid with what I’m giving them at this present time.”

Peters added that he’d no longer compromise on his footballing principles as he looks to drag his side back up the table and back into promotion contention. Whether that’s possible this season remains to be seen, but positive results in their next two home games against Horsham tomorrow (Tuesday) and Dagenham & Redbridge on Saturday would certainly lift the mood in the dressing room and amongst supporters – both on the terraces and online.

Peters said: “We had a three or four game patch where we had three or four red cards. Because of that we didn’t pick up enough points and confidence starts to dwindle.

“We then changed formation to try and maybe get a little bit of a lift into the team. I probably compromised on my thought process and my philosophy, and I won’t do that again.

“But in changing formation, it probably limited our attacks, other than at Chesham. We isolated JU (Josh Umerah) which isn’t great because he’s a force to be reckoned with.

“If you have a look at some of the personnel we kept from last year, they were not playing anywhere near as bad as they are now. We must look for the reasons why?

He added: “We need points wherever we can get them. If we can get points from these two home games things will start to look at lot better and we’ll be back in the middle of the table.

“I want to try and articulate to supporters how hard we are trying.”