CONNOR Miller’s goal was not enough to prevent Dover Academy from suffering their first home defeat of the season after losing 2-1 against Hastings on Wednesday.
Dover made a promising start to the game with Kyran Connolly having his diving header ruled offside.
But coach Mike Sandmann’s young side did finally break the deadlock through Miller in the 25th minute.
A great run into the box and cross from Ben Cardwell ended with Miller (pictured above) firing home.
Dover were in control now and were creating plenty of chances but couldn’t make them count, so they had to settle for a slender lead at half-time.
It was Hastings who started the stronger side after the break and they equalised from close range 10 minutes into the half.
Once again Dover created plenty of chances and again failed to put them away.
The best chance of the second half saw Cardwell fail to put away a cross from man-of-the match Matty Robinson.
Dover continued to pile on the pressure and Connolly had another goal disallowed in the 65th minute after Josh Spencer was ruled to have fouled the goalkeeper.
The young Whites kept working hard and tried to counter through Jordan Bartlett, which was cut out by the Hastings defence.
But those missed chances came back to hurt Dover when Hastings netted the winner after a ball across the Academy’s box was slotted home.
Match report by James Belcher and Rohullah Habibi.