White: We must address our last two displays

Terry White, Dover Athletic’s caretaker manager, has promised to make changes for Tuesday night’s Westview Cup quarter-final home tie against Leatherhead, writes Stephen McCartney.

White, in charge of first team affairs whilst Clive Walker is on sick leave, saw Dover Athletic surrender top spot in the Ryman League Division One South table on Saturday.

A passion filled crowd of 1,527, which was the largest crowd of the season at Crabble, witnessed Maidstone United secure an impressive 4-2 victory in an enthralling Kentish derby.

Maidstone’s pacy wingers, Nick Hegley and Alex Tiesse, who both scored during the first half, caused Dover plenty of problems throughout.

Maidstone’s pace and the fact that Dover have leaked eight goals in their last two games is giving White headaches.

“It’s a big disappointment for me, especially considering our record in the previous six. So it’s something I’ve got to address,” White told www.kentishfootball.co.uk

He added: “Something we haven’t got at this club, is a forward with a bit of pace. If we had a better forward today we would have won the game.”

But White admitted he doesn’t know how long his tenure at Crabble will last.

“I’ll just carry on doing my job until Jim (Parmenter) tells me any different,” he said.

“I said hello to him (Clive Walker) today, asked him how he was (and) to be fair to Clive he just let’s me get on with it and when he’s fit and ready to come back then I’m sure we’ll discuss it then.

“As I’ve said before, I’m very flattered to be asked to be manager of the football club and as I’ve said loads of times before, I knew my remit when I came in.

“It was going to be until Clive was fit and ready and that is the most important thing. I keep emphasising that. When he is fit and ready he will come back and we’ll go from there.”

White, however, admitted he is finding it hard to bring new faces to the club whilst Walker recovers from his back problem.

Walker was watching yesterday’s action from the stand after having an operation on his back last week.

White revealed: “I spend every waking minute of this week on the phone trying to get one or two players in but unfortunately good players at this time of year are at good clubs so we’ll have to keep looking.

“I mean, you can make what you want of statistics etc. We was six unbeaten now we’ve lost two on the spin so we just got to stick in there.

“We just knew February was going to be a tough month for us. You only have to look at the games. The last two games we’ve just had Tooting and Maidstone, two form teams and now we’ve got Leatherhead, Met Police and Dartford coming up who are all in the top.

“We all always knew it was going to be a tough month and like I said in my programme notes we have to stick in there.

“I mean, if you win games you’re world beaters aren’t you? If you lose them then there’s always something wrong. It’s a result orientated sport unfortunately.”

White will asses his squad before their next game, against Leatherhead on Tuesday night but he is expected to make changes for the Ryman League Cup quarter-final.

“Probably be a mixture of both (squads) I would imagine, because some of the are going to need a bit of a rest,” he said.

“They’ve got a big game at Met Police coming up next Saturday so we just have to see if everybody gets here, see if anybody’s got any knocks, bumps, bruises and pick a team then.”

Walker yesterday vowed to return to the dug-out once he is fit and rareing to go but did not want to give a timescale on his return.

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

Dover Athletic v Leatherhead
Westview Cup Quarter-Final
Tuesday 13^th February 2007
Kick Off 7:45pm
At Crabble Athletic Ground, Lewisham Road, River, Dover, Kent CT17 0PA