Dover Athletic will be supporting homeless charity Shelter’s ‘No Home Kit’ campaign at our home game against Dagenham & Redbridge on Boxing Day.

We will be wearing our all-purple kit for the clash at Crabble to support the campaign, which is raising funds and awareness to help combat homelessness across the nation.

Homelessness has risen dramatically over the last decade. The pandemic has shown us the importance of having a safe home like never before – yet more than 180,000 households have been made homeless since March 2020. With a tough winter ahead even more people could lose their homes.

The charity have asked for the football community to come together for the Boxing Day round of fixtures and ditch their home shirt and instead wear an away or third kit, in a powerful act of support and solidarity for people without a home.

The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness of the scale of homelessness across the country and raise funds to support Shelter’s frontline services and its campaigns to end the housing emergency for good.

The club are proud to be supporting the campaign and supporters are encouraged to take part too by wearing their away shirts for the fixture.

Click HERE for more information on the #NoHomeKit initiative.

We have limited availability remaining for the VIP Platinum Suite for our National League game against Wrexham on Saturday at Crabble, so don’t delay, book today!

To see the match from the best seats in the house and to enjoy a very special experience costs £28 per person.

Please note that this price does NOT include entry for non-season ticket holders who do attend, and they will still need to pay entry on the turnstile on the day.

The experience includes:

• Butler hosted lounge with large TVs and projector showing the game

• A three-course meal, served at your table

• Reserved undercover premium padded seating

• Complimentary tea, coffee & mineral water, plus dedicated paid bar before and after the match

• Complimentary matchday team sheet

Arrival at the ground should be at 1pm and food will be served at 1.30pm.

There are only 64 spaces available, so all tickets will be sold on a first-come-first-served basis.

The dress code is smart casual.

To buy your passes please email [email protected] or call the office on 01304 822373

We very much look forward to welcoming you to the suite soon.

Chairman Jim Parmenter has issued a rallying call to the local community to get behind the club, on and off the field.

Mr Parmenter was left dismayed by a section of Whites support which turned on the management team during Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Barnet at Crabble.

Speaking to Radio Kent’s and Kent Non-League Podcast host Matt Gerrard after the game, the Chairman admitted: “I thought it was pretty disgusting. I think the fans should be getting behind the team. What this town and community needs to do is get behind their football club. They know the trials and tribulations we’ve been through, for what I believe were the right reasons. I’ve made sure the club is here for the town. What we need is people to come to games and get behind the team. It’s only with people’s support that we’ll get ourselves out of this.

“Andy is working on a very limited budget, for reasons we all know, and with that budget, we have 24 players, quite a lot of them are young, and 11 were injured today. That’s the sort of thing he’s having to work with. It’s not a question of me backing Andy. If you know the facts, there’s nothing you can say about the manager – he’s doing the best he can with what he’s got available.”

Mr Parmenter renewed his appeal for investment in the club and also revealed the club was keen to attract new volunteers.

He said: “There’s a lot of work here done by a very few people. We need volunteers, we need investment and we need people to take an interest and get behind the club. What we don’t need is people criticizing the manager, the staff, the club, or players on social media or in the stands. It doesn’t do anybody any good. If you want the club here and for it to succeed then you need to get behind it and support it.”

“We’ve been looking for investment for years. Last week we went to Grimsby and they had a crowd of 6,000 and 100 people dining before the game. Our last home game we had 600 and 8 people dining. We’re competing with massive money in this league. There are 13 big, ex-league clubs backed by large crowds or very rich investors. Dover’s been up there competing with them for 16 years on very limited resources, but now we really do need more resources.

“I’m retired now, I’m getting older, the club does need an injection of money and a new modern approach maybe. It’s all well and good talking like that, but if nobody comes in to do it then I have to keep doing it, or the club folds.

“We’ve had no real serious interest at all. It surprised me a little bit but Dover is an unfashionable place, it’s not a London club that overseas investors go for. Dover is a backwater, the football club has been one of the success stories of Dover, for 16 years. Now we are struggling and what we need is the support of the town and the community.

“At the moment it falls on me to keep the club going. I’ve often thought about walking away but family and I have put a lot of time, money, and sweat in here. You’ve seen the developments we’ve made around the ground. We have a league standard ground and to see that fall and close would be a really sad event so we’re going to try to keep it going and see what transpires.”

Despite the appeal for investment, Mr Parmenter remains positive about the club’s on-field prospects, despite Whites finding themselves 17 points from safety after 11 games in Vanarama National League.

He said: “It’s not been a great year, everyone knows our position. We had a great groundswell of support for us throughout the country early on and we thought that might translate into gates but unfortunately, our gates have been quite low, which hasn’t helped.

“It’s only 11 games played, anything can happen, we’re not resigned to anything at all.

“We get a couple of wins together and anything could happen. It’s not over until the fat lady sings, as they say.

“I think we can survive in this division. Obviously, we’ve got to find some wins from somewhere. I’m hopeful we should have five or six players back for Saturday’s FA Cup game. Hopefully, that might be the turning point for us – if we get a win in that it could be the conduit for moving forward.”

Dover Athletic is looking for volunteers to join the media team and we currently have opportunities available in a number of key roles.

We are in need of people to provide help with our website and social media channels, including DAFC Live Text on Twitter on matchdays.

You would also be writing articles, updating statistics, conducting interviews with players and staff, and posting news on social media as and when required.

If you are keen to get involved and can commit to doing it on a regular basis, please drop us an email to: [email protected]