Dover Athletic 1 Worthing 2

AFTER their poor showing at Cheshunt last Saturday, Whites badly needed a good start in order to restore flagging confidence. But it didn't happen.

They went behind to the type of goal that indicated that it wasn't going to be their night.

Athletic should have gone behind as early as the second minute when the visitors' unmarked No 9 Sam Francis missed a sitter and in front of an unguarded net.

But Worthing only had to wait another five minutes to go in front as full back Chris Dicker drove in a free kick low and hard from close to the right hand touchline.

While Phil Ruggles claimed the final touch, it was questionable as to whether he got one as the ball squirmed between goalkeeper Pat Mullin and his left hand post.

As had been the case on Saturday, Whites took the better part of half an hour to get into their stride. When they did, they produced some decent movement and came closest to an equaliser when James Rogers' full-blooded volley from just outside the box forced keeper Marc Ormerod into a smart stop, tipping the ball over the crossbar.

In the second half Worthing, who deserve credit for attacking with pace and purpose throughout, invariably look more likely to add a second than Whites did to equalise. And so it proved. On 64 minutes Brahim Elouhmari drove hard and low across the face of goal, enabling substitute Sam Rents to prod the ball home from barely a foot out at the base of Mullin's left hand post.

To their credit Whites, with Dale Skelton having his best game in a Dover shirt in central midfield, weren't about to give up. There was no escaping the feeling that they would need something special or fortunate to get back into contention, however.

With 13 minutes remaining they came up with the latter as Rogers' free kick from the edge of the right hand side of the penalty box took a huge deflection off the wall to leave Ormerod stranded. It was to prove a mere consolation, however, and anything other than a Worthing victory would certainly have been an injustice.

To add to Athletic's woes, they finished the game with 10 men as Tom Hickman's aggression proved to be a liability rather than the asset. Hickman picked up two yellow cards within the space of the game's final minute - one for dissent and another for a wild lunge.

Dover: Mullin, Ball, Rogers, Lane (Readings 77), Cloke, Hickman, Skelton, Bone (Smidmore 77), Smissen, Wright, Carruthers.

Attendance: 556