Kentish Football 
The lads have enjoyed the experience and it will inspire them to move on, says Chris Kinnear
The Kent club were knocked out of The FA Cup in the third round when Ben Reeves’ 50th minute strike saw League One side Milton Keynes Dons earn a trip to holders Wigan Athletic in front of a sparse, yet impressive Stadiummk on Saturday.
Dover Athletic took 1,068 fans up to Milton Keynes and with only 4,060 fans in a 30,500 capacity all-seater stadium, the stadium looked empty but to their credit the travelling fans were vocal throughout and gave their side excellent support from the lower tier of the North Stand.
Kinnear, 59, was certainly impressed by the venue, which was chosen in England’s failed bid to host the 2018 World Cup.
He said: “It’s absolutely amazing, isn’t it? It’s better than some of the Premiership and Championship clubs really. It’s lit-up, it’s three tiers, it’s absolutely amazing! The pitch is lovely and green and you can see why it was part of the World Cup bid because it would have been brilliant up here. It’s a real football ground.
“It was nice for the lads to come and play here. Some, maybe, play here for their clubs (in the future), maybe we won’t catch up with the Milton Keynes Dons but some of them may move on and do great things.”
Kinnear was proud that his side did themselves justice against full-time League One opposition and want them to replicate their performance in the bread and butter of the league.
Dover Athletic welcome league leaders Bromley to Crabble in The Skrill (Conference) South on Tuesday night.
Mark Goldberg’s side are four points clear of Eastleigh at the summit after they stretched their 100% home record to nine games after beating bogey-side Farnborough 3-0 at Hayes Lane at the weekend.
The Ravens are 15 points clear of Dover Athletic going into the game and Kinnear’s side have slipped down to 14th place in the table with 22 points from 14 games – but with two games in hand over their Kent rivals.
“What we said at the end in the huddle, it was mentioned you know you can play against anyone and do yourselves justice,” said Kinnear.
“We’ve just got to move on now. We’ve got an important game on Tuesday, it’s a league game and next Saturday it’s The FA Trophy. They’re two games that we’d like to win but you can’t live in the past. It’s the next game that you’ve got to worry about so everyone has got to prepare now.
“We can’t get too carried away with this, it’s gone but look back and say we’ve done ourselves justice.”
Skrill Premier side Welling United were also knocked out of The FA Cup at the weekend with Jamie Day’s side going down to a 3-1 defeat at Plymouth Argyle, who will now travel to Port Vale in the Third Round.
“There were two sides from Kent that got through to the FA Cup Second Round this year and nobody’s gone further than us so they should be proud of that,” said Kinnear.
“But I’m proud with the way we finished the game and they didn’t feel sorry for themselves that they were going to lose. They could’ve got something out of it.”
Kinnear returned to Crabble for the second time last January and reflected on his time at the club after replacing Nicky Forster.
He said: “It’s brilliant. The club was on a bit of a bad run wasn’t it? We’ve gone there, we’ve still got a lot of work to do, but we’re slowly building. We’ve got great spirit with us now so we’ve just got to push on and start winning things now.”
Kinnear wants his side to avoid a FA Cup hangover against Bromley on Tuesday and against Leamington in The FA Carlsberg Trophy Second Round next weekend.
“It is a big game, why shouldn’t we go on?” Kinnear said of their Kent derby.
“Hopefully the lads can get their heads round. There should be a few people there. It’s quite a big game for us to start our league run again.
Trusted scout Kevin Raine watched Leamington’s 2-1 victory at AFC Telford United at the weekend, a result that puts the Warwickshire based club in 14th place in The Skrill North, with 6 wins and 2 draws from their 17 league outings.
Kinnear added: “It will be nice to have a good run in that. We can play against anyone really. If we can do this against Milton Keynes Dons, why can’t we do it against anybody?
“The lads’ have enjoyed the experience and hopefully they can use that to inspire them to move on rather than feel sorry for themselves – but I don’t think they will!
“Jake (Leberl, my assistant) said to the lads’ why don’t we go through and not lose another game for the rest of the season?
“Alright, that won’t happen but why can’t we try to win every game. We can get to The FA Trophy Final – someone from the Conference/Conference South will get to the final, I would imagine.
“In the league if we start a good run who knows where we can go but we weren’t going to win The FA Cup were we? We’ve just got to get on and continue to win games. We haven’t lost many, I think that’s two in 15, that’s not bad going.”
Visit Dover Athletic’s website: www.doverathletic.com
The Skrill South
Tuesday 10th December 2013
Kick off 7:45pm
At Crabble Athletic Ground, Lewisham Road, River, Dover, Kent CT17 0JB
Red Dragon I.T. Ltd