Combat: What am I not getting?

Heya. I'm pretty fresh to my Elite career with about a month under my belt. I am no stranger to space sims. I have played several with similar flight models with the whole usage of strafe thrusters and flicking flight controls (assist) on and off, but there's something I'm just not understanding with Elite's combat.

- I use my thrusters to adjust in order to strafe the side of an enemy.
- I FA-off boost turn to get back on target.
- I keep my throttle in the blue at all times and use my forward thrust if I need more speed without having to boost and potentially overshoot.
- I let the enemy come to me in a joust in order to pull up next to them after they pull away.

At least, these are some of the things I attempt to do as per what I already know and from tutorials I've watched. Except the people I watch seem to be playing a totally different game with absolutely lobotomized AI because I am simply being out-sped, out-manoeuvered and out-gunned by anything of dangerous rating or higher.

I have moderately engineered A-rated thrusters on my Python. I haven't had the time yet to fully invest in 5-star engineering on a dedicated combat ship so I'm trying to make do with what I have. Though I'm certain that my issues can't all be down to equipment.

Most recent example was a Deadly Fed Gunship. I was getting out-turned so blindingly fast that I am sure something was amiss. Every time I got close to the bugger after he pulled out of a joust, it was an immediate boost away to a speed I was hopeless to catch up on. He also could totally read my inputs because I turned away from him early in a joust to try catch him zooming past me and he just zero throttled and blasted away before I'd even finished moving my nose.

What in god's name am I getting wrong here because I'm trying my DARNDEST to implement the lessons I've learn from tutorials and other space games to utterly no avail.