Teenage Dover midfielder Luke Baptiste is hoping to chip in with more goals and assists this season having scored his first senior goal.

Baptiste capped his first competitive start of the campaign, scoring Whites’ fourth in their 4-0 home National League South win on Saturday against Hemel Hempstead Town.

“It’s given me a lot of confidence scoring my first senior goal,” said Baptiste who, aged 18, first signed senior terms at Crabble in January.

“Hopefully now, I can go into other games and score more and I can get some assists as well.”

Baptiste was one of a host of promising Academy prospects to be given a run in the first-team last term as Whites were relegated from the National League. Fellow midfielder George Wilkinson, Will Moses, Noah Carney, Harrison Byford, Alex Green and George Nikaj also stepped up into the senior ranks, and Baptiste accepts it helps they were all promoted around the same time.

He explained: “It helps a lot because, obviously, we've grown up together. It’s not like we are coming in one by one, we are all coming in together and helping to mould into the team together.

“Having your friends there from the Academy helps a lot.”

• Match report: Dover 4-0 Hemel Hempstead Town

Against Hemel, with Whites already 3-0 ahead, Baptiste capped a fine performance in stoppage-time with a goal. He went on a mazy run before he fired past Hemel keeper Craig King.

On his goal, he said: “I just thought ‘let me drive to the corner’, took on the player and then came inside and had that chance to shoot. So I put my foot through it.

“It was such a relief. I was tired as well, having run from the halfway line but, to score that goal, I was buzzing!”

Baptiste has plenty of more experienced players to learn from in Dover’s first-team and - even after his first goal - they were offering pieces of advice.

He said: “I can learn from them a lot. In training, I feel like I take too many touches in the wrong areas.

“After I scored the goal, Lee Martin and Mitch Brundle came up to me and told me: ‘That’s what happens when you take the right touches in the right areas!’”

Baptiste first played for Andy Hessenthaler’s side last season, coming on as a second-half substitute in their FA Trophy 1-0 defeat against Bromley in December.

He went on to make his fair share of National League appearances and so is well-placed to highlight the differences between playing in the top two tiers of English non-league football.

The 19-year-old said: “I’d say fitness, really. The level above, the athleticism and fitness of the players is just completely different to this level.

“But the training we have done [this season] has helped massively - with bonding as a team and the fitness, playing more and training more - with more 11 v 11s - [which] has helped our fitness a lot.”

Dover have certainly not had everything their own way back in National League South this term despite winning two of their three home games.

“It’s been on and off really,” Baptiste said.

“First game of the season, we did well [drawing 1-1 at Worthing]. Second game, we did well [beating Hungerford 1-0] and then went into the Tonbridge one and started very well but, obviously, we didn’t come away with the win [as they were beaten 2-1].

“Hopefully after this win, we can take the momentum into Ebbsfleet on Monday. It’ll be a hard game but, hopefully, we can get the win there.”

Seventh-placed Dover face a stiff test tomorrow as they travel to Ebbsfleet. Dennis Kutrieb’s side top the table and have won all five of their league fixtures this season.

“They are a passing team but we just have to play like we did on Saturday and just hope to take the momentum from this game into that one,” Baptiste said.

“We’ll have got to sit in. When we do get the ball, we’ll just have to try and counter-attack and be clinical in front of goal.

“It being a Kent derby will make it more interesting, as well, more fiery.”