Chris Kinnear hopes Aldershot’s wild celebrations after beating Dover on Monday afternoon come back to haunt them.

Matt McClure smashed home a penalty inside the last 20 minutes to secure the points and take Shots above Dover and into the National League play-off places after Connor Essam had brought down the marauding Jake Gallagher in the box.

Dover did muster a grandstand finish after Idris Kanu was sent-off for a second booking for Shots however and Aswad Thomas glanced a header inches wide from a stoppage-time corner while Ricky Miller bustled through in the 95th minute before seeing his effort blocked to the feet of Chris Kinnear Jr who could only scuff wide from 12 yards with the unguarded goal at his mercy.

The Dover boss had to endure players, fans and manager Gary Waddock’s outpouring of emotion at the final whistle of the 1-0 win at the Recreation Ground which saw them leapfrog Kinnear’s side into the final National League play-off spot in the final fortnight of the season.

He said: “It’s very disappointing, especially with the chances we had at the end, but they are a very good side.

"They look like they’ve already done it now, running around, their manager out there with the fans. If you listen to them (celebrate) they’re already there, but they might not be...

“We are very disappointed but that’s the way it goes, we can’t get too down. The players are fed-up but it’s football - half the sides in the county will be disgruntled, it’s part and parcel of it, you have to dust yourselves down and get on with the next game.

“They are a good side, a good club and for us to be even this close is quite an achievement, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to really go for it in the next three games. It’s still in our hands.”

With Ricky Miller the only recognised forward, Dover had adopted a conservative approach against a team who had lost once in 20 games and not at all at home since November and Kinnear admitted: “If you don’t change it you might get beat by a few here because they attack very well.

“We had the chances. They got a penalty, but apart from that we did enough. The penalty was a penalty, it was just disappointing that we got in that situation. (Essam) thought he was going to get it and mistimed it but that’s football.”

Dover face Torquay on Saturday (3pm) before their game in hand at home to Macclesfield on Tuesday (7.45pm) knowing two wins would take them back above the Shots ahead of the final day of the regular season.