“Possibly the end of September, maybe the start of October” – that’s the hope of Andy Hessenthaler when he hopes that we may see his side back playing in the National League, and the Whites boss is hopeful that it may be with fans watching.

He’s been talking to KSN this week with the clubs retained list still very much on the manager’s mind as he told us.

“The retained list came out in terms of players under contract and the ones who have been “released” with the released list being the ones out of contract and at this present time because of the financial situation, they are the players who we can’t actually offer a deal as we don’t know the money that we will have available.

“Once we know what sort of money that we have, there will be a couple of them that we would like to keep. So that list isn’t dead in the water as far as I’m concerned with the players and I know I’m repeating myself but it does depend on what sort of budget we’ve got for next season whether we can offer them a deal or not!”

“I’ve spoken to some players about next season but have had to say to them that we have to wait and see what happens with the budget and let’s see what we’ve got and then perhaps make them an offer going forward – at this stage, I won’t name any names but there is a couple on our list that I want to keep if I can if the budget is right.”

Hessenthaler also admitted that the length of time not knowing what was happening has become increasingly frustrating. “I’ve been in football a long time and have never known anything like this,” he said.

“It’s certainly driving me mad at the moment trying to keep my mind occupied but it’s just the not knowing of still not knowing when we’re going back.

“I’m missing it – you like having a break at the end of the usual season to recharge the batteries as best you can – you do as a player but not as much when you’re a manager or a coach because you don’t really switch off. You have a couple of weeks with the family, but your mind is still thinking about players and building a squad for the season ahead.”

“But I do admit that I’m finding it difficult as I can’t do that at the moment – I can’t plan and I think if you speak to all the managers they’ll all be saying the same; it’s a really frustrating time for football at the moment but we must always go back to the fact that people are still losing their lives at the moment – it’s not the be all and end all in terms of life as people are still losing their life but it is our way of life; it’s my living, it’s what I’ve done for a long time and I’m missing it and want to get back to it!”

“My gut feeling says that we will be back September October time – probably looking more towards October – and for a club like Dover and our League and even League’s One and Two, you’ve got to get people through the gate – we’ve got to have people watching football because financially clubs simply won’t be able to survive.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m hoping and praying that we’ll be able to get fans through the game and able to watch football again as soon as we go back!”