Kentish Football 
We must take advantage of being at home, says Martin Hayes
Thursday 07th October 2010
DOVER ATHLETIC boss Martin Hayes says his players are feeling edgy ahead of their FA Cup Third Qualifying Round tie against Cambridge City, writes Stephen McCartney.
The Kent giants suffered only their first defeat on their travels last weekend, crashing to a 3-2 defeat at Hampton & Richmond Borough, courtesy of leaking three goals inside the opening 31 minutes, and Hayes, who was speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk revealed the mood within the camp at training earlier in the week.
“We trained on Tuesday night and there was a lot of edginess about us at the moment, which is good as people are moaning a little bit and getting over a poor result last week and hopefully we’ll take it out on Cambridge,” said Hayes.
“The boys at the back that have been really good up until now had one of those 38 minutes when a lot will want to forget it. There was a lot of poor decisions made and some mistakes by not marking and missing the ball and a lot of it was self inflicted and we ended up finding ourselves 3-0 down and then proceeded to dominate the rest of the game and just gave ourselves too much to do.
“Take away our mistakes and it is another game we would have gone on and won.”
Dover Athletic professionally over came the potential banana skin at Kent League side Erith Town in the last round, winning 5-1, the only problem Hayes had was that former Tonbridge Angels and Croydon Athletic winger Sam Long picked up a groin strain and is rated doubtful for the Cambridge game.
Looking ahead to the visit of a Cambridge City side that sit proudly at the top of the Zamaretto Premier League with only one defeat in 11 games with eight wins and two draws from their first 11 games, Hayes admitted that his side must make use of Crabble.
“It should be interesting, we’re at home so it gives us a good advantage,” he said.
“It’s the FA Cup. Sometimes you throw away league tables and form guides and it could just go down to who wants it most on the day.
“I know a reasonable amount about them. Up until a couple of years ago they were in Blue Square South and they were big rivals to (my former club) Bishop’s Stortford and it was sort of a big derby game to us.
“There’s five or six players there that we played against in the past. Gary (Roberts) is still in charge as before so I’m familiar about them. I know it’s going to be a tough game and they’re going to look forward to coming to Dover and in their eyes they’ll be quite happy to come and take us back to their’s for a replay.”
Former Arsenal star Hayes added: “We’ve got a home draw so we’ve got a great chance to give ourselves one more game. In all the other ties there’s a lot of Blue Square (Bet) South sides who are all playing teams below them and the Conference (Premier) sides come in at the next round.
“The next round (fourth and final qualifying round) will be very tough with a lot of big games so we’ll certainly give ourselves a chance this time.
“We’ve got to be up for it and we’ve got to take advantage of being at home on Saturday. It really is down to the players now.”
The Dover Athletic boss reflected on his side’s opening 10 games, which has yielded six wins and two draws.
“I suppose if you did a school report, we’re doing ok, so far so good,” said Hayes.
“Three or four games we’ve played really well, three or four games, yes, we’ve done ok.
“The first half Saturday was probably the poorest 45 (minutes) we’ve played so far and the others we’ve done alright. We got away with it in a couple off games, but yes, we’re doing ok, without really getting ourselves into top gear, which I suppose is quite a nice feeling as we’re sitting in a nice position and I know there’s a lot more to come.”
www.kentishfootball.co.uk will be covering this game.
Visit Dover Athletic’s website: www.doverathletic.com
Dover Athletic v Cambridge City
FA Cup (Sponsored by E.ON) Third Qualifying Round
Saturday 9th October 2010
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Crabble Athletic Ground, Lewisham Road, River, Dover, Kent CT17 0JB
Red Dragon I.T. Ltd