Dover Athletic head for Bury in the First Round of the Emirates FA Cup this weekend buoyed by their first win in three months last time out.

Their 2-0 win over Maidenhead United, was as manager Andy Hessenthaler explained to KSN this week, just what the doctor ordered.

“We needed something to get us going to be fair. The previous games against Braintree and Dagenham had seen us beaten twice which had left us in bottom place in the table, although we did take a lot of positives out of the second half performance against Dagenham as we’ll take any positives we can get at the moment.”

“That helped us going into the game with Maidenhead and in turn that win will give us a real lift going into the FA Cup this weekend.”

Without the pressures at the foot of the National League, Dover head for Lancashire looking for another Football League scalp.

The boss admitted, “We’re relaxed by the game and the lads are really looking forward to it’s another big FA Cup day for the club and we’ll go there with no fears as all the pressure will be on Bury as they’re the League team who are going well in the League.”

“We know it’s going to be difficult and we’ve done our homework on them and will be working hard the rest of the week hopefully to go up there and make it very difficult for them and who knows, maybe get a win even though it would be great to bring them back to Crabble too.”

“I think if we make it into a battle, it will make it very tough for them and it could be a very good afternoon for us, as they’re a very good football side.”

Darryl McMahon’s departure from Ebbsfleet United this week now means that of our four National League clubs, only Neil Smith at Bromley has the job he started the season with – a point that wasn’t lost on Hessenthaler who said, “it’s strange isn’t it how things have worked out in the last few weeks.”

“I speak to Darryl (McMahon) quite a lot as they train at K Sports and he’s had a lot of problems behind the scenes that have been well documented financially, about players and staff being paid late and so on.”

“It would appear, that it’s all come to a head now and Darryl’s had enough and has gone. It’s not great for Darryl, but he’s done a fantastic job at Stonebridge Road, like Chris did at Dover, but that’s football and things change. And I’m sure that Darryl will be back in football very soon.”

As for players potentially coming to Crabble soon, Hessenthaler added:

“Nothing new on the player front this week because of the Cup, as if we’d have brought in anyone, they probably wouldn’t have been available, but we’ve got a few more irons in the fire for next week.”

“We’ll be missing a few this weekend anyway because they can’t play – Bobby-Joe Taylor’s cup-tied, Lee Worgan’s cup-tied and Jai Reason’s cup-tied – so it does give us an opportunity to blood some of the youngsters, but come next week, I am looking forward to player movement next week, and hopefully a place in the next round.”