Home   Dover   Sport   Article

Dover Athletic coach Mark Newson gives his view on home National League win over Eastleigh

Coach Mark Newson described Dover's second-half performance against Eastleigh on Saturday as one of their most polished displays of the National League season.

James Alabi's 32nd minute header gave the league leaders a half-time advantage before defender Connor Essam wrapped up a 2-0 win with his first goal of the season just before the hour-mark.

Newson admitted the Whites management team were delighted to have kept another clean sheet and with the professional way the players went about their business in the second 45 minutes.

Mark Newson
Mark Newson

He said: "It was a pleasing result. The second half we knew they'd come at us and try to cause us problems but to be fair to our boys the second half was the most professional second half we've had this season.

"We restricted them to two, maybe three shots, we kept the ball well and we were probably a little bit unfortunate not to get a third goal.

"Mitch (Dover keeper Mitch Walker) made one good save in the second half but we had enough chances to get one or two more, we looked good in the final third."

Newson said the clean sheet was down to the team defending well from front to back, and he praised the performance of midfielder Nortei Nortey, recently restored to the starting line-up after loan signing Paul Lewis returned to parent club Cambridge.

He added: "As I've just said to the boys in the changing room, the centre-halves were solid, and the midfield two, Bruns (skipper Mitch Brundle) and Norts did very well.

"The way we play is not as a lot of teams play, we're quite different in certain areas, we ask players to do certain things and adapt to certain roles and Nortei has.

"I thought he was probably the best player at Gateshead (where Whites drew 0-0) and I thought he was one of the better players today.

"He has may be seen the Paul Lewis addition as a challenge to him but Paul's gone back to Cambridge so Nortei's stepped back in and he's been terrific.

"He's a different type of player to Paul Lewis but we've asked him to adapt his game which he has so I was pleased with him."

Newson said he was also pleased to see loan signing Alabi score his first goal for Dover and hopes the striker can now go from strength to strength.

He added: "It's always difficult for a forward, it's about scoring and confidence. We thought he just needed the rub of the green to get off the mark and hopefully now he has he can relax a little bit.

"We've asked him to play a role that is a little bit unusual for him. I think he'd prefer to play central but we've asked him to play wide but he's adapted to it well.

"He's still learning about the way we want to play but I thought he looked the best he's looked today and he'll only get fitter because he hadn't had a lot of minutes at Tranmere (before his loan move to Crabble last month)."

Close This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.Learn More