We can handle the pressure and expectation, says Lovell - EXCLUSIVE

Mark Lovell believes Andy Hessenthaler is the man that will fire Dover Athletic out of the Ryman League Division One South as champions, writes Stephen McCartney.

Striker Lovell, 24, opted to leave his father Steve at Whites’ rivals Sittingbourne, to join Hessenthaler at Crabble.

And he was impressed following yesterday’s opening pre-season friendly, which they lost 4-1 against Lovell’s first club, Gillingham.

“It was a good work-out,” he said EXCLUSIVELY to www.kentishfootball.co.uk.  “Its our first game, it was me a fitness practice really for us.

“With the heat, I think it came off in the end with a good performance.

“We were knocking it about, the pitch here is unbelievable, it’s a lovely pitch. You’ve got to play football when you’re at home, and that’s what we done.

“We let in a couple of sloppy goals from set-pieces, but in these games you don’t really look at the scores much. It’s more for the individual fitness and collectively as a team, so overall the manager and Darren (Hare) are pleased.”

Lovell explained his reasons to leave Bourne Park to Crabble - and the main one was Hessenthaler, a Gillingham legend, being manager.

He said: “That’s the major reason why I came down here. Obviously the ambition this season is to go up and you can just feel it around the club and I want to be apart of it.

“There’s no reason why we can’t go up. We’ve got a good young squad here, mixed with a couple older faces and it’s a good mixture.

Lovell netted sixteen goals for Sittingbourne last season, and had to make the gut-wrenching decision to leave dad Steve.

“My dad’s a good coach, and the lads there are good lads and I had a good season last season, but sometimes (when) a challenge is put in front of you, that you’re up for, you’ve just got to take it.”

Despite losing 4-1 to a full-strength Gills side, in front of a stunning July crowd of 3,011, the Whites impressed.

Alan Pouton, 30, formerly of Grimsby Town, Hartlepool United (loan), York City, Oxford United and Gillingham, scored from a stunning right-footed curling free-kick, which flew into the top right-hand corner after 59 minutes, to half a two-nil deficit.

“We’ve been doing a lot of ball work in training and the whole team’s looking sharp to be honest,” said Lovell.

“We’ve got a lot of attacking players that are all mixing well, blending well, and defensively we’re looking sharp. As a team, especially our first game, collectively, we all look quite positive.”

Lovell believes the side can handle the expectations - and pressure - to deliver the title this season, having fell in the play-off’s for the past two seasons, under previous boss, Clive Walker.

He said: “We all like that (expectation) though. We’re looking forward to that. We put pressure on ourselves as well because we know we’re good enough to go up and we’re not bothered about any pressure.”

Visit Dover Athletic’s website: www.doverathletic.com