Steve Brown saw his Ebbsfleet players grow in confidence during their 4-1 win over St Albans

The Fleet came into the game without a win or a goal in their last three outings.

But strikers Charlie Sheringham and Billy Bricknell both struck twice during what turned out to be a comfortable win for Brown's men - and their best performance of the season so far.

"Goals change games," Brown said. "It was a tight affair, as most games in this league are for 15 or 20 minutes. The fitness levels are exactly the same and most teams are very lively for 15, 20 or 25 minutes.

"We got our noses in front from a set-piece, we got the second from a set-piece as well and in the second half of that first half, we created enough opportunities to have gone in more than 2-0 up.

"Goals do change games and you saw a different team after that. I don’t care what anyone says, we were three games without a win, three games without a goal, there is a confidence issue there and we’ve addressed that. Both of the strikers who started scored two each and that goes straight to the top of their brain in terms of confidence. All of a sudden, where they were stretching for shots, finishes come much more easily."

The first-half goals were scored by Sheringham and after Steve Wales had pulled one back early in the second half, Billy Bricknell got in on the act with two goals of his own.

St Albans substitute David Keenleyside was sent-off with the score at 2-1.

Brown said: "By the end of the game, four was perhaps the least we deserved.

"But there was a moment in the second half where St Albans made a change at half-time, brought a big man on up front and scored within four minutes. For 10 minutes, I needed the side to compose themselves a little bit because St Albans had their tails up.

"We got through that and then there was the sending-off, which really did make life a lot easier for us and we went on to get three and four.

"I thought, over the 90 minutes, that the right team won, but there was a 10 or 15-minute period there where I was on the sidelines thinking ‘I can’t believe this has turned out this way’.

"We had a lot of chances, though, which is something that’s been lacking."

Ebbsfleet are away to Weston-super-Mare on Tuesday night.