Andy Hessenthaler has urged his players to hold their nerve as the National League survival battle begins to intensify.

Saturday’s injury-time home defeat to Harrogate stretched Dover’s winless run to four games and dropped them back into the bottom four for the first time since Boxing Day.

Boss Hessenthaler said getting out of the bottom four had given his players a big lift at the time and he hopes slipping back into the drop zone doesn’t now have a negative effect.

He said: “I hope it doesn’t, because we’ve got to stick together. When we came in we knew the mountain we had to climb, we started to climb it and now we can’t afford to have a slip-up.

“For me we’ve got to win six games out of our last 13. It’s at that point now where you’ve got to hold your nerve.

“We’ve got to keep working hard. Can we win six out of 13? Yes we can, we’ve proved that. Since we’ve been here we’ve won seven games (out of 18). We’ve just got to bounce back from this we can’t let it affect us.

“We’ve just got to keep our heads up and keep going. We’ve got 39 points available to us that’s how you’ve got to look at it, we’ve got to get as many points as we can as quickly as we can and see where it takes us at the end of the season.”

Few would argue with Hessenthaler’s assessment that his side should have beaten Harrogate but he did admit they made too many mistakes. It was the second week in a row they had been beaten at home by a stoppage time goal.

He added: “That’s how cruel football can be but we’ve just got to lick our wounds and get our heads up.

“They’ve got to take what I’ve said afterwards and they’ve got to realise that I am going to rant and rave at times because that’s the frustration coming out of me.

“I’m desperate for them to do well because they’re all great lads, they have been doing excellent but unfortunately it’s nothing to do with shapes, it’s about managing the game, seeing the danger.

“If the ball comes across, think the worst, think that their player will get the ball and keep it in and make sure you defend properly and we didn’t and also take your chances, we’ve got to be better in both boxes.”

Three of Dover’s next four games are away, starting at title-chasing Salford on Saturday, but Hessenthaler wants his team to relish the challenge.

He added: “Three of our next four games are away so it’s not going to be easy but we know what we’ve got to do.

“Everybody else has got to do it. We’re no win in four so we’ve got to put that right and nothing would be better than putting that right going to Salford.

“We’ve got to go there thinking we’ve got a chance, they’ve just been beaten by (bottom club) Braintree so they are on a bit of a downer. They’re going to want to bounce back.

“Hopefully we’ll show our character next week and we can go and get something.”

Midfielder Bedsente Gomis is available again for Whites after serving his three-match ban but Josh Passley continues to be hampered by a hamstring problem.

Nortei Nortey (virus) and Moussa Diarra (ankle) both missed the Harrogate game but could be back this weekend.