Dover Athletic boss Andy Hessenthaler has had a tough week.

After his shoestring squad took National League favourites Stockport County to the limits last weekend, Dover capitulated to a five nil home defeat to Aldershot on Tuesday night and the boss wasn’t happy as he admitted to KSN. “Very disappointed,” Hessenthaler admitted.

“Embarrassed really – that’s not a Dover team that I want to put out there and perform the way that they did. I take responsibility as I put them out there and the staff will – it’s the same group of players bar two or three that started against Notts County and they beat Notts County!

“So you scratch your heads because you know that they’re more than capable, we know we’re capable, but we didn’t run around enough; we didn’t deserve anything on Tuesday night because they wanted it more than we did! And that hurts me as a manager, the way I played is the way that I manage and my players.

“If they give me everything week in week out and they get beaten because of a goal that’s unavoidable or if we did make a mistake and did everything.”

Reflecting on the short season thus far, Hessenthaler said, “To be fair, the Bromley game was never a four one score-line, it could easily have gone our way but didn’t! We gave silly goals away and the referee had a poor night. And then at Stockport on the weekend, nil-nil at half time and they will win the League for me.

“I’ll put it out there now, we did alright even though we lost. But on Tuesday against Aldershot it was almost that we’re only playing Aldershot who haven’t got a point on the board and we can beat these!

“But they embarrassed in the end as they wanted it more than us – and I can’t accept that! I can accept where we get beaten by the better side when they find more quality than us, I can accept that, but I cannot accept Tuesday’s performance!”

He went on, “How can we produce the performance we did against Notts County and then that performance this week, and that’s difficult for me and the coaching staff because it’s the same group of players.

“But for me their mentality changed against Aldershot, we didn’t have enough leaders out there, yes we’ve got a young team and yes we had six players who have played at this level and above, but we’ve got five boys who have never played at this level. They’ve been lower Leagues or come up through youth sections, but we can’t hide behind that – its easy to make excuses but we didn’t run around enough and that’s the simple fact of it.”

“So yes, we’ve had a tough start, but what do we do? We know our remit – we’ve got to try and stay in this division with the squad of players that we’ve got.

“It doesn’t make it any easier as we’ve still got all the players from last year on the transfer list, that doesn’t make it any easier because we’ve still got to try and cut the budget down. But they’re on the list because of not taking a pay cut and they will remain on the list! That doesn’t make it any easier for me or the coaching staff as we want them to go out and have a go for us!