Dover Athletic welcome Harrogate Town to Crabble this weekend, with the Yorkshire side returning to Kent looking for League points where they tasted Trophy triumph a few short weeks ago.

For Andy Hessenthaler and his side, it’s a question of recovering from last Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat to Gateshead as soon as possible.  The Dover boss told KSN this week, “One nil winning at half time and I thought we’d started well with the boys doing exactly as we’d asked them to do and probably should have got another goal in truth.

“We then made an adjustment to the shape which probably in the end went against us as going forward we didn’t look as good whilst the two goals that we game away aren’t us really given the four clean sheets out of the last five games – it was a disappointing day but now we have to focus on the next game now and that’s Harrogate on Saturday!”

“We’ve got to start another unbeaten run but it’s still just two defeats in twelve games and if we only have two losses in the next twelve, we’ll be safe in the League and will have reached our target.  We know all the games are tough but coming up we’ve got Harrogate on Saturday who are pushing for the Play offs before we go to play a side looking to get promoted automatically and flying in Salford, before the go into a group of games against sides around us which are going to prove to be vital.  So, we need to get back on track and bounce back and that’s what we’ll be trying to focus on come Saturday.”

It’s a month since Harrogate knocked Dover out of the Trophy at Crabble – a fact not lost on the Dover boss!  “They know about us and we’ve watched their game against Stockport in the Trophy last week – we lost to Harrogate of course in the Trophy and got a good point at their place in the League which was my first game back in charge.  They’re a good side who have kept the momentum going after their promotion last season and it’ll be another tough game for us.”

“We have played more games than most teams but its not anything top worry about yet as we’re all looking at our own targets and winning the games that they’ve got to win in the games that they’ve got left!”

And finally, to the team news and Hessenthaler revealed,” we’ve” picked a couple of knocks this week – Josh Passley is still out and Bedsente Gomis is still banned whilst Moussa Diarra has picked up a bit of a knock in training, but we’ll be raring to go come Saturday afternoon.”