It’s been a tough week for Andy Hessenthaler and his Dover Athletic players – not that you’d know following two stunning road wins against the United’s from Hartlepool and Maidenhead.

Speaking to KSN, Hessenthaler was a happy boss when he told us, “To get two wins out of two on the road especially at places like Hartlepool and Maidenhead – which are really difficult places to go – we just seem to happen away from home; we’re grinding results out and the effort the boys are putting in and the siege mentality away from Crabble we’re getting our rewards! 

“So, credit to the boys – we’ll take it all on board and its nothing; its not rocket science, it just case of setting up and working harder than the opposition at the moment.”

Sadly, talk went back to the disgraceful events that more than overshadowed the win at Hartlepool.  “At one stage, I gave them the option to come off the pitch because what was going on was frightening really!” a clearly shaken Dover boss admitted. 

“To see what was going on – and I felt so sorry for the players – and after talking to Craig Hignett as well, he was more than happy for both teams to come off the pitch.  But the players – both sets – wanted to carry on.  The real mental strength of the players and the character that we have in the dressing room – I got them together in the dressing room afterwards in a little bit of a huddle and told them how proud I was of them. 

“I’ve been in football a long time and to see a group of players pull themselves together and let football do the talking and get a result for themselves and the football club was phenomenal – it was a bit of an emotional day really; absolutely hats off to them every single player on that pitch.”

A clearly annoyed Hessenthaler continued, “I haven’t known anything like that in thirty-five years in the game!  As I said after the game, it was a sad day for football.  Our team and their players – credit to them as they’ve got black players in their team too and it must have been horrifying for them to see your own fans doing what they were doing and saying what they were saying – I’ve not seen anything like it – I don’t know if at any stage the game was going to be abandoned but credit to the referee really. 

“I know he was under a little bit of a barrage from the opposition over some of the decisions he was making – he was under immense pressure with what was going on and off the pitch; he had to stay strong which was a huge credit to him.”

Turning our attention to events on the field and Hessenthaler conceded, “I’ve never been too lucky at Maidenhead thanks to the manager and their team – they’re a good side; Alan (Devonshire) who I played with at Watford – we were team-mates and good friends – and he’s done a fantastic job at Maidenhead. 

“They’re not full time – they do three days a week but what he’s achieved at Maidenhead and the other clubs he’s been at has been tremendous.  Its always tough to go there but we grinded another result out.  First half I thought we were excellent and really needed the second goal – but we didn’t get it and they came back into the game!  But we let them back into it, but again we had a knock back with the goal that they scored, and we dug in and got a goal and defended for our lives.  That’s what we did on Saturday at Hartlepool and we did it again last night – again hats off to the players they really have been phenomenal!”

Dover face AFC Halifax Town in the BT Sport Saturday tea-time game, and the manager knows that his side must try and find that winning feeling at home to match their sensational away form.  “A lot had been said about our home form which people will talk about as our away form is the best in the League whilst the home form is one of the worst! 

“We want to get our home form going but keep our away from going at the same time which will hopefully be maintained as we look to stay in the top seven.  There’s  a little bit of a gap between us and the side in eighth – I think its four points but we want to do it in front of our own supporters and the bigger crowd; we have a lot of fans who travel – again on Tuesday they were terrific – we’ve got to continue doing what we’re doing away and I do believe the results will come at home and we’ll get the results that we deserve!”

Finally the team news for the weekend and Hessenthaler told us, “Oscar Gobern and Jack Munns will probably not be ready for Saturday whilst Josh Pask may have a chance to play on Saturday after he picked up an achilles problem at Hartlepool but apart from those three we should be OK!”