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Preview: Dover Athletic (H)

The Bees will be hoping to extend their unbeaten run and will go into tonight’s game off the back of a 2-1 victory over Notts County on Saturday.

Darren Currie’s side did have to come from behind though as Enzio Boldewijn found the top corner on nine minutes.

However, skipper Callum Reynolds turned the game on its head just before the half-hour mark, equalising proceedings going into half-time.

The Bees then clinched all three points in the second half after Jack Taylor fed through Simeon Akinola before the forward bagged his third goal in three games.

The Opposition

Dover Athletic, who have never played in the Football League, will undoubtedly be chasing a play-off place this season.

After promotion from the Conference South in 2014, the Whites finished within the top 10 in every season in the fifth tier since, except last campaign where they clinched 14th.

Dover currently sit sixth after clinching two 2-1 wins against Chesterfield and Wrexham either side of falling to a defeat by the same score-line against Dagenham last Tuesday.

The Whites haven’t lost in their last five away league games. However, when it comes to facing Barnet, they have never come out on top.

Manager: Andy Hessenthaler

Andy Hessenthaler was appointed Dover manager in October 2018 after leaving fellow National League side Eastleigh.

In his first season as the Whites’ boss, he guided them to a 14th place finish, level on points with Barnet.

This is Hessenthaler’s second spell as Dover boss after winning back-to-back promotions in his first stint that stemmed from 2007 to 2010, lifting the club to National League South as player-manager.

He then went on to manage his former playing club Gillingham and after leaving in 2012, he returned to the club for a third spell two years later as assistant boss.

He then took up the same role at Leyton Orient in 2015 before becoming manager the following year but he was sacked after a matter of months.

Hessenthaler returned to football ahead of the 2017-18 season as assistant manager of Eastleigh before succeeding Richard Hill in the hot seat eight months later. He began last campaign with the Spitfires before returning to Dover two months ago.

Hessenthaler is also no stranger to Barnet. The Dartford-born manager made 40 league appearances for the Bees, scoring two goals in the year he spent at Underhill.

The former midfielder also played for Watford and Gillingham before making the move to Barnet and as a Dover player, made over 30 appearances, scoring on four occasions.  

Last Time Out:

The last time these two sides came up against each other, Barnet took all the points.

The Bees welcomed Dover to The Hive London in December 2018 and won 2-0 in front of the BT Sport cameras.

Jack Taylor opened the scoring on 56 minutes before Mauro Vilhete sealed maximum points in the early stages of stoppage time.

Top scorer: Alfie Pavey

With three goals to his name already this season, the same goals tally as Akinola, former Bee Alfie Pavey is Dover’s top scorer.

The forward netted a brace in the White’s curtain raiser at Chesterfield before he added to his tally against Dagenham in the following game.

Connections:

Ricardo Santos spent time with Dover at the start of the 2013-14 season but it was short-lived as he signed for Thurrock shortly after. He failed to make a single appearance for the Whites.

Junior Lewis spent three years with Dover from 1993 to 1996 after signing from Fulham, making 84 appearances for the club.

Whites forward Pavey joined Barnet on loan back in 2014 whilst at Millwall and the 23-year-old featured three times for the Bees.

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