Chris Kinnear knows what his first objective must be as new Dover Athletic manager – to improve Whites’ poor home form.

Just four wins in 12 league games at Crabble this season was a major factor in the downfall of predecessor Nicky Forster and Kinnear said: “The home form has been patchy. You want to be playing well at home because that’s what excites the crowd and leads to bigger gates.

“I don’t know why it is but one reason might be that Dover are a bigger club than a lot of people around here realise, so you will get teams coming here happy to put players behind the ball and frustrate.

“But working out how to beat that is all part of the challenge of being a manager.”

A quirk of the fixture list, caused partly by the recent weather postponements, means that the first three matches of Kinnear’s second period in charge will all be at Crabble, starting with the visit of bottom-of-the-table Truro City on Saturday.

Kinnear added: “It might have been better if my first three games were away rather than at home but we just need a couple of good results to turn this home thing around.

Kinnear’s squad will include his first signing, 25-year-old left-sided defender Tyrone Sterling, who joined from Cray Wanderers last week. He said: “He’s like lightning and I tried to sign him when I was manager at Margate.”

Sterling’s arrival is timely because defensive duo Danny Webb (suspended) and Shane Huke (foot injury) are both ruled out.

Whites are at home to Bromley on Tuesday.