Andy Hessenthaler felt Dover Athletic's players were 'feeling sorry' for themselves during the second half of their 3-0 loss at Bromley.

After enjoying the better of the chances in the first half, Whites fell behind on the stroke of half-time when Frankie Raymond fired past away keeper Yusuf Mersin from the penalty spot after striker Inih Effiong had been adjudged to have fouled Bromley man Joe Kizzi by referee Carl Brook.

The Ravens doubled their advantage at Hayes Lane shortly after the restart when ex-Gillingham midfielder Josh Rees found the net, and Bromley secured the points from the National League encounter late on when Michael Cheek broke through to score.

On his side's second-half display, Dover manager Hessenthaler said: "We were feeling sorry for ourselves, for me.

"We didn’t need to be feeling sorry for ourselves - we had dominated the first half - and just because we had not scored and the ref wasn’t on his game… You’ve just got to roll your sleeves up.

"We gave a goal away just before half-time and, after that, we looked like we felt sorry for ourselves because we had looked like we had been dominating the game until then."

"It was a game of two halves, wasn’t it? We absolutely murdered them in the first half, this place was like a library for 44 minutes, but then we made a poor decision and gave the penalty away," he reflected.

"We should have had a penalty. The referee’s performance wasn’t acceptable. I have to be careful what I say about referees but he is not up to (officiating at) this level.

"We hit the bar and we had numerous chances.

"If you take your chances in the first half, you come out and take something out of this game. We made a poor decision on 44 minutes, it was a penalty, and he (Effiong) doesn’t need to climbing all over him.

"Then, we huffed and puffed in the second half and we had to chase the game.

"We gave a silly goal away in the early part of the second half. We ended up changing things to chase the game and we shouldn’t have been in that position."

It means Dover drop to 13th in the league table, four points adrift of the play-off places, while Whites now will not be in league action until January 11 when they host Hartlepool.

Prior to their New Year's Day defeat at Bromley, Hessenthaler's team had claimed back-to-back wins over the festive period, beating Bromley at Crabble on Boxing Day and claiming a win at Ebbsfleet on Saturday.

"Six (points) from nine, I’d have taken that from games against Bromley at home, Ebbsfleet away who are fighting for their lives and this game," admitted Hessenthaler.

• Match report: Bromley 3 Dover Athletic 0

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