Season: 2022-2023

Mike Sandmann

A UEFA ‘A’ License Football Coach since the age of 21, Sandmann has been Dover Athletic Academy manager since 2010, having previously worked with the Dartford Academy.

Having been a youth player with Gillingham, Mike was one of the youngest in the country to gain his A license, before working at Crystal Palace and Gillingham.

Alongside his academy role, Sandemann has worked in first team football, including a spell as manager of Leatherhead from January 2016 for nine months and coach at Margate shortly afterwards as first team coach.

Mike is now working alongside Jake Leberl in with the first team.

 

 

Andy Hessenthaler

Whites’ gaffer Hessenthaler returned to Crabble in October 2018.

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 seasons 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.

Hessenthaler left the Spitfires 15 games into the 2018/19 campaign for a Dover side second-bottom of the National League on seven points.

Athletic were not in the relegation zone for long as Hessenthaler successfully steered the club to safety with three games to spare, as Dover finished last season in 13th place on 60 points.