Dover Athletic captain Jacob Mensah on facing former club Maidstone United after their FA Cup exploits

It’s a big day for Jacob Mensah this weekend as he prepares to captain Dover against his former club.

Whites host Kent rivals Maidstone at Crabble on Saturday (3pm) with Mensah, 23, looking forward to facing his old side.

The centre-back had a spell with the Stones in the National League last season and on Monday night watched their 5-0 FA Cup fifth-round defeat at Championship club Coventry.

“I’m looking forward to Saturday because it’s nice to see a few familiar faces and also it’s just competitive,” said Mensah, released by ex-Stones boss Hakan Hayrettin shortly before George Elokobi took charge.

“It’s football, we both want to win, it’s a local derby and I think both teams are going to put everything out there and leave everything out there on the pitch.

“I watched the FA Cup game. That was just unfortunate but Coventry are a good side and it is a Championship club at the end of the day, even though they beat Ipswich in the last round.

“They’ve had an absolutely amazing cup run and hats off to them because Elokobi is a great guy.

“I know a few of the boys as well but it’s good for him, especially with his first managerial job.

“It’s an unbelievable achievement for someone to do that.

“I enjoyed it at Maidstone.

“It’s unfortunate how things came to an end under the previous manager but that’s football and you’ve got to move on and be as professional as you possibly can.”

Mensah says Dover would be wrong to think Maidstone will suffer a comedown following the end of their FA Cup run.

He expects the Stones to be on their game at Crabble and Dover will prepare accordingly.

“All the boys are switched on,” said Mensah.

“It’s not a case of they’ve had a game a couple of days after we had a game so we get a couple more days’