Dover Athletic boss Mitch Brundle keeping his options open as trialists look to make their mark

Manager Mitch Brundle is hoping his patience pays off as Dover’s pre-season gathers pace.

Whites suffered a heavy home loss to Gillingham on Saturday – losing 4-0 - but boss Brundle fielded a different team in each half and included numerous trialists.

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While Brundle will look to keep the best of those on trial, he knows there will be other players filtering down from the levels above and wants to keep his options open.

He said: “There are always players out there that we are looking at. There will be better players released, we don’t want to sign too many too early.

“You can sign players and then when better ones become available you haven’t got the budget for it, so you have to manage the budget properly and sensibly.”

Three of Dover’s summer signings have departed already. Last season’s player-of-the-year Myles Judd has joined league rivals Hemel Hempstead Town, midfielder Ademola Shokunbi has dropped a level to play with Isthmian Premier Dulwich Hamlet and player-assistant Ricky Holmes is back with Farnborough after featuring in just one pre-season game.

Dover played host to Enfield Town last night (Tuesday), losing 2-0. They welcome Folkestone Invicta to Crabble this Saturday (3pm).

Those games give Brundle the chance to assess the hopefuls once more and he said: “That is what these games are for and now the minutes start ramping up. We start going to 60s and 30s for some, you start looking at your team, trialists coming in, signing some more players.

“There are a few where the trials stop happening for some in the top divisions, in the Conference they will have had two XIs for their first two games.

“They are out of the window now, a lot more players become