Hessenthaler tells his classy side to keep the momentum going

MINNOWS Needham Market will have no chance knocking Dover Athletic out of the FA Cup on Saturday - if the table-topping Kent giants replicate last night’s scintillating performance against Ramsgate, writes Stephen McCartney.

Andy Hessenthaler’s side remain four points clear at the top of the Ryman Premier League table following their impressive 4-1 win over Ramsgate.

Frannie Collin scored the first of his brace inside the opening three minutes before Mo Takaloo levelled for the Rams from the penalty spot after 26 minutes.

But Dover Athletic turned on the style during the second half with Lee Browning, Collin and Alan Pouton’s penalty adding the gloss on a stunning second half performance.

Attention now turns to Saturday’s FA Cup second qualifying round tie at home to Needham Market, a side that play two divisions lower than the Whites and are currently in sixth place in the Ridgeons League top flight with a record of four wins and a draw from their first six games.

But Hessenthaler, speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk last night, knows his side, with eight successive wins under their belts, should have enough class to make it through to the next round.

But he warned: “There is a banana skin there. They’ve got some good players, we’ve had them watched (and) we know what they’re about.

“But we won’t feel sorry for them because they’re a couple of divisions below us.

“We’ve got to take our momentum (from) tonight, a great performance second half. We’ve got to now take that into the FA Cup and treat it like another league game and don’t worry who we’re playing, whether it’s Needham Market or whoever it is, Ramsgate, doesn’t matter, Horsham, whoever we’re playing.

“We should be hungry to keep performing and that’s eight games on the spin that we’ve won, 9 out of ten. We’ve got to make it another one. I don’t want to stop. I want to keep the momentum going and at the moment we look like we can win every game.

“We’re not going to because that’s football, but at the moment winning’s a habit, as they say, and losing’s a habit and at the moment, we’ve got that winning habit.”

Hessenthaler proved that he’s not frightened to drop any of his star players, as was with the case with Browning, who picked up the man-of-the-match award last night.

“We left him out for two games and he had the hump with me, which I quite liked actually,” revealed the well-respected boss.

“He wouldn’t talk to me. I didn’t want him to be happy about it because he wanted to get back into the side but he wasn’t doing, he wasn’t playing to his full potential and I have him a rest.

“I gave John Keister a rest because I felt he wasn’t, Alan Pouton.

“If players I feel are tired and need a rest or under performing they’ll have a rest and he (Browning) had a two game rest and came back and he’s been fantastic since.

“Sometimes when you give players a kick up the backside and you get a response and that type of character is great for me and I like that.”

Hessenthaler revealed last night that Sammy Moore will be added into the squad for Saturday’s FA Cup tie, especially as seven substitutes can be picked (although only three can be used).

Midfielder Jon Wallis, who relishes shooting at goal from outside the penalty area, is expected to have recovered from his hamstring in about two weeks time, but Craig Cloke’s injury is much more serious, as Hessenthaler explained last night.

“Craig is on the crutches, he’s had a scan tonight (Tuesday), we’ll get the results tomorrow (Wednesday),” he said.

“He has got interior cruciate ligament damage, which is bad news. Unfortunately how bad the interior cruciate is we won’t know until the scan results come through so he’s going to be missing for a few months now.

“John Keister’s said he’s had a reconstruction on an ACL and he was back in three months so we’ll keep our fingers crossed and see what happens.”

Visit Dover Athletic’s websites:  www.doverathletic.com & www.dafctv.co.uk

Dover Athletic v Needham Market
FA Cup (Sponsored by E.ON) Second Qualifying Round
Saturday 27^th September 2008
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Perrys Crabble, Lewisham Road, River, Dover, Kent CT17 0JB