The title race is not over, insists Hessenthaler

Sunday 08th November 2009

DOVER ATHLETIC boss Andy Hessenthaler says the Blue Square South title race is not over - despite losing their fourth successive home game to leaders Newport County, writes Stephen McCartney.

Newport County are now five points clear of the Kent giants at the top of the table, following their 2-1 win at Crabble yesterday.

The result means that the Whites have now lost their fourth successive home game, following defeats to Basingstoke Town, Eastleigh and Woking.

But the 44-year-old boss remains upbeat with his side’s chances to overhaul the Welsh club in the remaining 25 games.

“We can get into the play-off’s if we play like that,” Hessenthaler told www.kentishfootball.co.uk following the game.

“That’s our ultimate aim before the season; can we get into the top five?

“Newport are league leaders at the moment and you can see why. But I think they’re heading off thinking they’ve nicked three points today.

“They can celebrate as much as they want after the game, but it’s decided over 42 games and there’s a lot of twists and turns yet to come.

“The boys will remember how they’ve celebrated today for when we go to Newport later in the season and I’m sure we’ll be looking to get a result there (in our penultimate game).”

Following some off-colour performances, Hessenthaler was pleased with his side’s display.

“I thought the performance was terrific today,” he said.

“Unfortunately they’ve come for a point and ended up with three. I don’t think they deserved it over the 90 minutes and in the second half there was only one team in it.

“We got back to 1-1 and just had to go and finish the game off.

Hessenthaler, who takes his side to struggling Weston-Super-Mare next Saturday, faces an injury crisis ahead of their trip to Somerset.

Olly Schulz, Jon Wallis and Sammy Moore were all unavailable for yesterday’s game and Jerahl Hughes lasted only seven minutes after coming off the bench before being withdrawn due to injury - and there’s stalwart defender, Craig Cloke who hasn’t kicked a ball this season.

“I don’t think we need to strengthen, all this comes down to the budget we’re working to and for me to do that, we’d have to let players go,” explained Hessenthaler.

“At the moment we’ve got 15 players available to us and we’ve got to live with that; we need all our squad.

“We’ve lost Olly Schulz today, Jon Wallis today (both injured), Sammy Moore this morning (ill), now we’ve lost Jerahl Hughes (a substitute who lasted seven minutes during today’s game) probably for a few weeks, and one of our best leaders has been missing all season, Craig Cloke.”

Hessenthaler knows fans are concerned with recent results, but the Blue Square South is a lot more tougher physically than the Ryman Premier League.

“The fans can be worried if they want (about results), but they’ve been spoilt in the last two years. We’re second in Conference South; maybe they’ve got to be more realistic, we’re doing well here,” he said.

“We’re playing against some good sides, much better than we have in the past. Remember, we’re still second!”

Visit Dover Athletic’s websites: www.doverathletic.com & www.dafctv.co.uk

Weston-super-Mare v Dover Athletic

Blue Square South

Saturday 14th November 2009

Kick Off 3:00pm

At Woodspring Stadium, Winterstoke Road, Weston-Super-Mare, North Somerset BS24 9AA