Andy Hessenthaler admitted his Dover Athletic side didn’t deserve to win after a poor performance at lowly Worcester saw them record just their second defeat of the season.
The Whites, who were top of the Blue Square South before Saturday’s game, started strongly and should have opened the scoring in the first 20 minutes. Dean Hill’s diving header from a Nicky Southall free-kick produced a stunning stop from Worcester goalkeeper Ben Hinchliffe.
Hill’s header was Dover’s best chance of the entire game as Worcester, who have made a slow start to the season, dominated the proceedings. The hosts took the lead on 35 minutes with a free header from Mark Clyde.
The visitors struggled to respond in the second half and never looked like finding an equaliser to get back into the game. They ran out of ideas which left manager Hessenthaler disappointed with a defeat, as his side dropped to second in the league.
He told Yourdover: “Obviously I was disappointed to lose and especially the way we lost the game. We started brightly and should have taken our chances but ultimately we were poor and deserved to lose the game.
"Too many of our players had off days and it cost us and I don’t think any of our players deserved any credit from the performance.
“I was disappointed and the players know that, but it is out of my system now and we have just got to focus on bouncing back. We knew at the start of the season we would lose games in this division but I hope we don’t lose too many like that.”
Dover take a break from league action this Saturday when they host Welling United in the FA Cup third qualifying round.
Hessenthaler is looking forward to the game and insists his players must bounce back from Saturday’s league defeat.
He said: “Welling will be an interesting game. Their manager Andy Ford is a wily old fox and knows all about non-league football. I am sure they will want to get one over us following their 2-0 league defeat to us early this season.”
POSTED: 05/10/2009 15:38:35
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