Dover Athletic manager Chris Kinnear admits that his side’s lack of a ‘killer punch’ is seriously damaging their Skrill South promotion chances.

Whites’ goals for record of 17 in 16 matches, after Tuesday night’s 2-1 home defeat by Eastleigh, is the joint second worst in the division with only Gosport Borough having scored fewer league goals so far this season.

And it was a familiar story for Whites’ fans against Eastleigh as they watched their side enjoy more than their fair share of possession against one of the title favourites but fail to convert that possession into enough goals.

Kinnear said: “We just couldn’t finish them off and that’s happened to us before and it’s something we are going to have to do something about.

“We are capable of scoring goals, as we showed in the 4-0 wins at Eastbourne and Chelmsford but we are not doing it regularly enough, especially at home.”

Whites were without one of their most potent attacking weapons, the pace of Ricky Modeste, on Tuesday because the winger was again sidelined by his hamstring problem, while left-back Tom Wynter was ruled out by illness.

Both are doubtful for Saturday’s trip to Staines which marks the start of a testing Christmas programme for Whites, who host Tonbridge on Boxing Day before facing another Kent derby at high-flying Ebbsfleet United on December 28.