Archives: News

DEBAYO JOINS ON LOAN

The Club is delighted to announce the arrival of left-back Joshua Debayo on loan from League Two Cheltenham Town.

The 21-year-old joined the Robins on a two-year contract after leaving Leicester City at the end of the 2017/18 campaign.

The Nigerian has made five League Two appearances and two in the EFL Cup this season.

Debayo started his career with Fulham and Chelsea before moving to Southampton in 2013.

Our new number 28 then joined Leicester City and spent two seasons playing for the Foxes Under-23s before making the move to Gloucestershire.

Welcome to Crabble Joshua!!

 

LEWIS MAKES MOVE TO CRABBLE

Andy Hessenthaler has made his first signing as Dover manager.

Midfielder Stuart Lewis joins on a two-year deal from Maidstone United and is set to make his debut at Harrogate Town on Saturday.

The 30-year-old Lewis was captain at the Stones and made 74 appearances for our National League rivals after making the move to the Gallagher Stadium on loan from Ebbsfleet United in January 2017.

He won the Maidstone Supporters’ Player-of-the-Year award three months later before making the move a permanent one last summer.

Before joining Maidstone, Lewis made 83 appearances, scoring seven goals for Ebbsfleet after arriving from Wycombe Wanderers two years earlier – he Lewis was Fleet’s  Player-of-the-Year for the 2015–16 campaign.

He was one of Wanderers’ longer-serving players, having joined the club from Dagenham & Redbridge in January 2011 after a successful loan spell, and made a total of 168 appearances, scoring eight times.

Lewis, who will wear the number 27 shirt for Dover, has also played in the Football League  with Barnet, Stevenage, Gillingham and Dagenham.

Welcome to Crabble Stuart!!

 

SMITH HEADS TO SEVENOAKS

Young forward  David Smith has joined Bostik League South East side Sevenoaks Town on loan for one month to get some games under his belt.

The 19-year-old has made three appearances for us in the National League this season.

Good luck David!!

 

 

YOUNG WHITES BOW OUT OF KENT CUP

Whites’s academy side were beaten 4-2 by a strong Maidstone United on Tuesday evening at the Gallagher Stadium.

With Andy Hessenthaler overseeing his first training session with the first team squad that same evening since being announced as Dover’s new boss, Mike Sandmann’s academy side represented Athletic in the second round of the Kent Reliance Senior Cup.

The home side were two goals ahead thanks to strikes from Ollie Muldoon and Olu Durojaiye, with the lead further extended by George McLennan and substitute Blair Turgott following the restart.

However Sandmann’s boys, made up of players aged 16-18, hit back twice late on thanks to a Harrison Kempston penalty and Joshua Spencer’s scrambled effort.

And Dover’ academy manager was full of praise for his young team in spite of their defeat.

”That is the best they have played this season by some distance.”  Said Sandmann afterwards.

”I only found out Saturday my lads would be playing in the Kent Cup instead of the first team, but they acquitted themselves ever so well against professional players.

”As you can imagine Maidstone dominated possession, but the boys kept their discipline and shape fantasticaly well, which was always a big challenge as we only have one player over six-feet tall in the side!”

And Mike believes the academy’s Kent Cup experience will only benefit his young charges in the future.

“This is a new group and it takes time to gel, but they showed how well they can play.  They have set the bar very high for themselves and if they can maintain that level of performance, the future is very bright for Dover.”

MEET THE NEW MANAGEMENT TEAM

New boss Andy Hessenthaler needs no introduction to Dover fans.

A combative midfielder on the pitch for the likes of Watford, Gillingham and Barnet, Hessenthaler had great success as Athletic’s player-boss between 2007 and 2010, winning back-to-back promotions to take Dover from the Ryman South division to the Conference South.

And after ending the 2009/10 season as runners-up in the second tier of non league, Hessenthaler returned to Gillingham as boss for two campaigns, steering the Gills to two consecutive eighth-place finishes in League Two.

A third stint at Gillingham followed two season later, this time as assistant boss, a similar role he held at Leyton Orient the following year, before being made manager at Brisbane Road in 2016.

Dismissed by the O’s later that same year, it wasn’t long before Hessenthaler was back in football, joining Eastleigh before the start of the 2017/18 season, initially as assistant manager, before taking over from Richard Hill as boss just eight months after joining the club.

Dover fans might well recognise the rest of the club’s new management team.

Darren Hare returns for for a second spell, this time as joint first-team coach, having served as number two during Hessenthaler’s reign as gaffer.

Hare, who is also Andy’s brother-in-law, was most recently in charge of Hastings United and also represented Dover as a player on two occasions.

Also joining as first-team coach is Nicky Southall.

Southall, who featured 31 times for Dover, played in the top four divisions of the English football pyramid, including 20 appearances in the Premier League for Bolton Wanderers.

The Middlesbrough-born midfielder also spent the largest part of his playing career with Gillingham and was most recently assistant-manager at Maidstone United, helping oversee their rise from the Isthmiam Premier division to the National League.

Welcome back to Crabble Andy, Darren and Nicky!