Dover boss Martin Hayes was pleased with his team’s display against Huddersfield after a "nightmare" start.

Hayes admitted that at 2-0 down everything they had spoken about before the game went out of the window.

"I didn’t want us getting beat five six or seven-nil," he said. "I thought we were better than that. They seemed to take their foot off the pedal a little bit and it gave us a chance to regroup.

"If we had got one the crowd might have got on their backs a little bit and that was our only hope. I was pleased we steadied the ship after two and we didn’t want to go home on the end of a hiding. Fair play to Lee (Clark), he didn’t want a big banana skin game at home.

"He had done his homework and they showed their bit of quality. I’m just glad we pushed them for the whole 90 minutes.

Hayes confirmed that FA Cup hero Adam Birchall had been troubled by a calf problem.

He said: "He did it toward the end of the first half and then aggravated it but he didn’t want to come off and it eased off a bit which was pleasing.

"He is our main goalscorer. I told him that Huddersfield would make it difficult for him, and they did. The step-up in class was bigger, but Adam was frustrated he didn’t score."