We hear from the men who made Dover’s victory over Eastbourne Borough possible.

Despite an early setback with the Whites conceding inside two minutes, it was a spirited performance and the first reversal since pre covid. It’s a statistic that has stretched on for far too long but not only was it a first win in six but also showed character to come from behind.

Speaking to Kent Online Sport, manager Mitch Brundle said ‘Like I said when I first took the job, it’s a work in progress. The players have got to trust the process, and they have. Today, we have scored two goals, which I’m delighted with. I’m glad to see Josh get off the mark. I’m hoping now that gives him a bit of confidence. The team did everything I asked of them, with their desire, their commitment, their work ethic and their respect for each other to do each others’ jobs. It’s something we’ve had in all our performances, to be fair, since we’ve actually been able to bring players in and shake the squad up how we want it to be.

I think that’s two draws, a win and a loss since we brought players in, which is fantastic. We were missing goals but, today, we got them. The actual work ethic of the team is the thing that makes me the most proud because they’re running for me and they’re running for the club. You could see the celebrations after the game and that just comes from hard work. I said that at half-time. I said “You didn’t drop your heads, you didn’t think the world was against you, you didn’t sulk. You dug in and made sure that you turned the result around.” They believe in what we’re trying to do.

Second minute, the goal went in and I was thinking “Oh God, here we go”. But fair play to them, all credit to them, and their hard work pays off. We just move onto the next one now. I thought Lee Martin was outstanding. Pax (Jack Paxman) joins in with the front lads unbelievably well and Higgsy (Jordan Higgs) is Higgsy. He’s consistent. Consistently throughout the season, he performs to a level which makes him such a valuable player to us.’

There was also a special mention for Stuart Nelson who’s save in the second half helped to secure the points. Nelson has since been named in the Vanarama National South Team of the Week.

Tyrone Sterling rolled back the years and scored a fantastic header to level the score at one a piece. ‘What a great feeling to get the team back in the game,’ he said. I don’t score many but to hear the crowd erupt after scoring is always so special.’

Josh Ajayi finally opened his account after knocking on the door, well the woodwork actually, in his last few outings. It was a sublime finish from a player who is clearly starting to enjoy life at Crabble. ‘It was a great performance from the boys, not just myself,’ said Ajayi. We dug deep, especially after going behind so early on. I think i’m settling in quite well, it’s a great bunch of lads who haven’t made it hard for me at all.

I think now that I have got my goal it’s a bit of pressure off my back and has given me the extra confidence to keep going and hopefully scoring and helping the team as much as I can. We have shown what we are capable of, whether at training or on game day so we just need to keep building on these positives going forward.’

COYW.