Following last weekend’s 3-0 defeat at the hands of Solihull Moors to slip to tenth in the National League table, boss Andy Hessenthaler has called for a Dover Athletic improvement.
But such is the tightness of the Division, just four points separate Notts County in sixth and Barnet in 13th and with Andy Hessenthaler’s side just a point outside the Play Off zone, the Dover boss has called on an improved performance from his charges as Yeovil Town come to Kent this weekend.
Frustrated after the weekend’s defeat in the Midlands, Hessenthaler admitted, “It was disappointing as the week before we’d had a great performance – unfortunately we didn’t get anywhere near that level against Solihull which meant we missed a chance to keep that momentum going.”
“So yes it was disappointing, but I don’t want to be too critical on the boys but we didn’t deserve anything from the game.”
“To be honest, they did have a little help with a couple of decisions that went against us – after watching the video back I believe I’m right on a couple of them – but you can’t argue; we’ve got to do better as we’re at the stage of the season now where we can’t have any of “those” performances!”
“I didn’t mind that we couldn’t get to the level that we did against AFC Fylde. We just dropped too low last weekend – a real chalk and cheese performance and the boys know that, and we’ve got to put that right at the weekend!”
“We’ve picked up nine points in the last five games which isn’t bad and to be fair it’s been one of our better months looking at the games in front of us but we are certainly still in the mix.”
“If someone had said to me that with ten games to go, we’d be a point outside the Play Offs with a game in hand on the three teams just above us then you’d have taken it.”
“So, in that respect we’re still in the mix with ten games and thirty points to play for which makes our next game against Yeovil on Saturday a massive game for us so it doesn’t get any easier.”
“But they’re all tough games now – everyone says it, but we’ve got ten Cup Finals as it’s the business end of the season whether you’re at the top or bottom of the League.”
“This year is different to last year and the boys came up with a stat the other day that we’ve picked up 106 points since we came into the building back in October.”
“We had seven points so take what we got last year and what we’ve got this year that’s sixty-seven games which works out nearly 1.66 points a game which is Play Off form over 46 games.”
“We’ve just got to finish the season off now on a high like we did last year and hopefully we can cement out place in the top seven – looking at the table and you can still go down as far as either 14th or 15th place can still get a place so every club has opportunity at the moment!”
The Dover boss then turned his attention to the visit of Yeovil Town to Crabble at the weekend.
Hessenthaler said, “We won one nil down there and it was a good performance in front of the TV cameras. They had a good win at the weekend (beating Wrexham 3-0) but have been on a bit of a sticky run points wise over the past five or six games but they’ll take confidence from Saturday and we know it won’t be an easy game.”
“That said, our home form has improved lately – we’ve won four of the last five – and let’s hope that that can continue at the weekend.”