Manager Andy Hessenthaler says the commitment Dover's players are showing is helping to motivate him to keep going.

Their miserable campaign continued on Saturday as a late strike from Torquay’s Armani Little consigned them to an 11th National League defeat in 14 matches this season.

The winless Whites took a surprise early lead when Travis Gregory scored his first goal this season, only for Little to equalise in the first half before netting again just before full-time.

Hessenthaler, who praised the effort of his troops, said: “Hats off to them.

“If they were not running around and still fighting, I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t be here myself.

“What was good on Saturday was the fans were class, and they even applauded the boys off at the end. They were gutted for the boys.

“They (Torquay) are a big club that has been in the Football League. In terms of infrastructure, we are a million miles away from them.

"Even though we lost the game, there were a lot of positives to take from it.

“I get frustrated with the boys at times but sometimes you need to remember how young some of them are. They are going to make nervous mistakes but, on Saturday, credit to them all.

“To be honest, that was probably our best performance of the season, certainly away from home. I’m deflated for the boys.

“I have looked at the stats for distance covered and it was great, but we have still not won the game or even got a result. We deserved at least a draw and could have even won it.

“But their (second) goal was a fantastic strike from the lad, I must say, and it just sums up our luck at the minute.

“The technique was top drawer.”

A surprise move saw Dover drop playmaker Koby Arthur at Torquay.

Hessenthaler explained: “The reason for that was we felt we needed to play three centre midfielders in TJ Bramble, Ryan Hanson and Henry Woods.

“Koby has probably been our best player offensively this season, but he is more of a number 10 and I just felt we needed to do something slightly different away from home.

“It was a tough call but we need to start grinding results out.

“So that was the reason why we made that decision on Saturday, but it may be totally different when we play at home.”

The National League basement boys, 20 points from safety, now have back-to-back home matches against play-off occupants FC Halifax this weekend and a fellow part-time club in Wealdstone next Tuesday.

Hessenthaler said: “We are playing one side that is doing very well in Halifax, and that’s going to be another tough game for us.

“Then we are up against a team that are similar to us in terms of infrastructure in Wealdstone. I think they maybe train an extra day a week but they are certainly very similar.

“But there are no easy games in this league.”

Player-coach Reda Johnson, who came off at Torquay (thigh strain), and striker Ricky Miller (calf) are both set to be sidelined for a couple of weeks while Seth Twumasi continues to battle a recurring knee problem.

Hessenthaler is hoping to send midfielder Marshall Wratten, 21, out on loan in a bid to get him regular first-team football.

He said: “We just need to get him some games because there are no reserve games or friendlies that we can get him minutes in, or anything like that.

“We are looking to get him out because he has a great attitude.

“He just needs to get his lungs and legs going regularly in match situations.”

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