Andy Hessethaler says Dover’s 1-0 defeat at Worcester City was a wake-up call and expects his side to bounce back in Saturday’s FA Cup clash with Welling.

Whites host their Blue Square South rivals in the third qualifying round at Perrys Crabble after falling to second in the league behind Newport County.

Hessenthaler (pictured) has not lost back-to-back competitive games since taking over at Dover and is hopeful his players will show the desired response against their Kent rivals.

He said: "We didn’t do ourselves justice on Saturday. It is hard to be too critical after the start we have had but it was just a bad day at the office. Every team has them.

"You can hold your hands up if you gave it a go but just got beaten by the better team but we should have come away with something. We have to take it on the chin.

"But if you’d said we’d be second in the league after 13 games and only have lost two games, I’d have taken that."

He added: "Maybe it has been on the cards. We were a bit fortunate against Bath City. Maybe this is the wake-up call we might have needed."

Adam Birchall and Jake Leberl are likely to be in contention on Saturday after injury, Frannie Collin could start after getting 30 minutes at Worcester while Olly Schulz should play despite cracking a bone in his wrist during Saturday’s game.