Kentish Football 
There's things that aren't right at the moment, admits Hessenthaler
Speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk after the 1-0 defeat to Chelmsford on Holiday Monday, the Dover boss was grateful that the performance improved somewhat from Boxing Day.
He said: “We definitely got a response from the players after Saturday. Under the circumstances we really are being tested at the moment, with all the different things going on such as suspensions, injuries, players not turning up to a game which I won’t go into – there’s things that aren’t right at the moment and we’re going to have to have a shake up and turn things around.
“We’ve got 18 games to go, loads of points to play for. If we can get players back and get a few new ones in, I’m still convinced that we’ll be there on thereabouts.”
Given the Boxing Day humiliation, Hessenthaler was pragmatic as to his sides approach to January 1.
He said: “I don’t really think that we’ve got to talk that much about Friday’s game – the boys know what they’ve got to do.
“We didn’t have to talk much about Monday’s game with Chelmsford because of the Boxing Day performance which simply wasn’t good enough.
“The players have got to want to wear the shirt and for me it didn’t feel that way. After going 2-0 up I’ve never played in a game like it! It was so comfortable after 10 – 15 minutes and that was probably the problem and I spoke to Darren on the side and said that I think we need another one – it was that sort of game – and we then let them back in, we were loose and it just looked passionless and that’s tough for me to say as I’m a passionate guy.
“I think that there was a bit of soul searching – I’ve been in football a long time and we’ve had great success here and it’s going to be very difficult for us to go on and repeat what we’ve done in recent years as this is a far better league.
“We know what we’ve got to do – it might be a case where we have a look at the League and the decide what we’ve got to bring in.
“I retained 15 players last season and in the harsh realities there’s probably a few of those that aren’t up to it – that might be harsh but that’s the case.
“If we are going to be up to this standard we’ve got to make sure that we play better than we have done against Lewes on Boxing Day.
“There is nothing to be said about the return game coming up on Friday. We’ll just regroup, see who we’ve got available to us – I’m not sure that the Old Man will be available as I think I’m going to be suffering for the next few days.
“We’ll definitely be without Jon Wallis, Sammy Moore’s still out, Danny Walder’s going to miss out, we may have Shaun Welford back which will be a bonus, Sam Gores still out, Lee Browning’s still out, John Whitehouse may be OK. At least Matt Fish will be back from suspension – other than that we’ll go with what we’ve got.
“At this stage of the season it’s difficult to bring players in before New Years Day! We’ll try – I watched a game on Tuesday – we’ll have to juggle the pack as best we can and we’ll see and go from there.”
Visit Dover Athletic’s website: www.doverathletic.com
Dover Athletic v Lewes
Blue Square South
Friday 1st January 2010
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Crabble Athletic Ground, Lewisham Road, River, Dover, Kent CT17 0JB
Red Dragon I.T. Ltd