Dover Athletic manager Jake Leberl resists temptation to give side half-time dressing-down - before Whites come from behind to claim 4-2 FA Cup second qualifying round victory against Folkestone Invicta

Boss Jake Leberl resisted the temptation to give Dover’s players a half-time dressing-down before they came from behind to claim the derby-day spoils against Folkestone on Saturday.

Whites found themselves 2-1 behind at home to their National League South neighbours in front of a Crabble crowd of more than 2,000 after the opening 45 minutes despite Jack Bates’ effort.

But a strike by midfielder Bates - his second of the day and fourth in three matches - levelled it up before Luke Baptiste put Leberl’s team in front and a penalty by fellow forward Decarrey Sheriff in the last 10 minutes ensured Dover were 4-2 victors in the FA Cup second qualifying round tie.

While Leberl wanted to give some of his charges the hairdryer treatment, he opted against doing so - and saw that half-time call reap major rewards.

“It’s so difficult,” said Leberl, previously No.2 to the legendary Whites manager Chris Kinnear. “Back in the day, managers used to rant and rave and - although I felt I wanted to - I just made the decision not to.

“We’ve been so good in the last couple of weeks so I didn’t want to go down that route.

“I knew the players would be hurting because they knew there was more to come. We needed to perform a lot better in the second half than we did in the first half.

“Thankfully, we did and all plaudits go to them.”

Leberl conceded striker Ruben Soares-Junior hadn’t really been fit enough to make his first Dover start of the season.

But with forwards Corie Andrews (calf) and Rolando Onu (quad) each sidelined in the build-up to the big derby, he felt he was left with little other choice than to start the Portuguese man.

“It’s been a difficult few days,” reflected Leberl, whose team are on a three-game winning run.

“We picked up