Andy Hessenthaler’s Dover Athletic suffered defeat in their first home game of the season on Tuesday night, falling to a 2-1 loss at that hands of Dagenham and Redbridge.

The Whites has won their first game of the season, coming from behind to beat Chesterfield 2-1 on Saturday, but couldn’t get the better of a well drilled Dagenham side on a chilly Tuesday evening at Crabble.

Alfie Pavey scored his third goal of the season to bring the home side back into the game after they had fallen behind courtesy of an Angelo Balanta strike, but former Dover midfielder Mitch Brundle netted from the spot for the Daggers in the second half to give them all three points.

The away side thought they had taken the lead as early as the first minute when forward Joe Quigley rolled the ball past Lee Worgan, however he looked up to see the linesman’s flag in the air ruling the goal out for offside.

The game proved to be physical in the early exchanges, and Luke Croll hacked down Inih Effiong to give the Whites an early opportunity at goal. Bobby-Joe Taylor struck the dead ball, but straight into Elliott Justham’s arms in the Daggers goal.

Plenty of crosses began to fly into each penalty box, with James Dobson missing Bagasan Graham’s delivery by inches for Dagenham before Inih Effiong headed Josh Passley’s ball just over the bar.

Dagenham perhaps should have gone ahead after 15 minutes when Joan Luque rattled the post from just yards out with Worgan stranded. Joe Quigley put the rebound wide and Peter Taylor would have been pulling his hair out in the away dugout at the missed opportunity.

The word on the terraces at Dover is that Inih Effiong is lacking confidence, and that arguably showed after he was played in on 20 minutes. Rather than pulling the trigger early, he seemed to take too many touches, allowing Clark to get back to clear. Moments later, he headed wide from a pinpoint Bobby-Joe Taylor delivery following good work from Jack Munns.

The opening goal of the game came on 26 minutes and it was Dagenham, and Angelo Balanta, who got it. Michael Woods gave the ball away in sloppy fashion high up the pitch following a Dover corner and the away side broke at pace through Luque. Woods tried to recover but simply couldn’t keep up with the Spaniard, who ran almost the whole length of the pitch before squaring the ball to Balanta to prod home – a poor goal to concede from a Dover point of view.

Dover will have felt hard done by on the half hour mark when trying to get back into the game. Dobson pulled back Effiong when the forward seemed to have a clear run at goal; a yellow card and a free kick, into the keeper’s hands, the result.

Dagenham continued to press after the goal and almost grabbed a second when Luque again caused problems down the left with his pace. He was played through and his shot beat Worgan, but not Scott Doe, who was able to clear off the line.

On 37 minutes, perhaps against the run of play, Dover equalised through Alfie Pavey. The Whites continued to utilise the wide areas and crosses into the box, and the tactic finally paid off when Josh Passley got one right and Pavey did the rest, firing a bullet header neatly past a helpless Justham.

Apart from another Effiong free kick, the goal was the last action of the half and Dover may have felt they were lucky to go in level at half time after having to put up with plenty of Dagenham pressure for most of the half.

Effiong continued to prove a nuisance up top for Dover at the beginning of the second half, forcing a nice save from Justham after a smart flick on from Taylor, however Dagenham were back in front moments later courtesy of a defensive mix up between Kevin Lokko and Scott Doe.

A long ball looked easy to deal with, and Lokko aimed to flick the ball back to Doe to build again from the back. Doe, though, misread the pass and Balanta ran onto the loose ball to run at goal. Doe caught up with the Dagenham man, but his trickery proved too much and the Whites defender bought the Balanta down, and the referee had no hesitation pointing to the spot. Former Dover captain Mitch Brundle stepped up and sent Worgan the wrong way to give the Daggers the lead, amit to a chorus of boos from the home faithful.

Dover continued to bombard the away penalty area with crosses and the tactic almost paid off when Alfie Pavey headed just over from another Taylor delivery.

Soon after there was a goalmouth scramble at the same end, but, again, Dagenham got out of jail and managed to clear.

The Passley – Pavey link up almost proved true again just after the hour mark, however the latter was just unable to connect with the former’s cross, triggering sighs in the home terrace.

As the game neared the final 20 minutes Dover had a penalty call of their own when Modeste went down in the area. It seemed a good shout, but referee Scott Jackson wasn’t interested.

Soon after fullback Bobby-Joe Taylor decided he’d had enough of putting crosses into the box and had a go himself, but he dragged his shot wide with his weaker right foot.

Dagenham were having to work hard to see the game out but weren’t giving up adding a third to their tally; James Dobson was denied only by a brilliant Kevin Lokko block before Reece Grant headed wide from a corner.

Alfie Pavey may be in the goals for Dover at the minute but he’ll be rueing missing a chance to draw Dover level on 77 minutes. Substitute Steve Rigg drilled a neat ball across goal and Pavey got in front of his man, yet couldn’t connect properly and the ball ran out for a goal kick.

Rigg had a go himself as the game neared the final 10 minutes, heading just wide from a corner, and he again had a good sight of goal on 82 minutes, but could only bend his effort tamely into Justham’s arms.

Rigg had Dover’s final chance of the game as normal time concluded, but wasted his shot, firing high and wide of the goal.

Dagenham probably should have extended their lead with the last kick of the game when Brundle found himself one on one with Worgan with Dover committing men forward, but the Whites stopper made himself big to keep it at 2-1.

2-1 was how it finished, though, and Dover had to accept their first loss of the season.

Dover: Worgan, Passley, Taylor, Doe, Lokko, Reason (L’Ghoul 56), Woods, Effiong (Rigg 61), Munns (Modeste 56), Pavey, Gobern

Subs not used: Mersin, de Havilland

Goals: Pavey 37

Dagenham & Redbridge: Justham, Croll, Clark, Brundle, Balanta (Grant 71), Graham, Robinson, Quigley, Luque (Wright 71), Dobson (Phipps 88), Eleftheriou

Subs not used: McQueen Wood

Goals: Balanta 26, Brundle 54

Attendance: 1520

Referee: Mr S Jackson

Assistants: Mr A List and Mr M Begley

Fourth official: Mr P Cruise