Dover Athletic 3 Braintree Town 1: Reaction from Whites manager Andy Hessenthaler to their National League South win at Crabble

Andy Hessenthaler watched Dover ease past Braintree on Saturday in National League South - before admitting he felt they had played better in their previous two matches!

Striker Chike Kandi struck before substitute Luke Baptiste and frontman Alfie Pavey extended Whites’ lead after the break and, despite away defender Baris Altintop pulling one back at Crabble, Dover held on for a 3-1 victory.

The win means Hessenthaler’s men are now three matches unbeaten - their longest unbeaten run since before the Covid pandemic - having returned to action after an 11-day break following a 1-1 draw at Welling last Tuesday and a 2-0 success at Weymouth.

Dover boss Hessenthaler reflected: “We’ve just kept that little bit of momentum going after the last two results. Obviously we’ve been off for a while with no game last Saturday, so that was a little bit of a worry, but I think the boys today were good.

“They probably weren’t as good as they were in the last two games, though, I’ve got to say - I said that to them in there [the changing room].

“I think we played better in the last two games but it was one of those games today where we identified, getting the ball forward a little bit quicker to our two centre-forwards could cause them problems.

“I thought we did that all afternoon.”

Kandi scored his second goal in as many games to put Whites in front. Pavey flicked a long ball out of defence onto strike partner Kandi and, despite being tugged down inside the penalty area by a Braintree defender, he kept his nerve and found the net.

“He can play wide but obviously, as you’ve seen, we played him down the middle,” said Hessenthaler.

“We worked on it in the week and I said he’s got to get closer to Alfie. Alfie caused problems with his