Manager Jake Leberl felt nobody in Dover’s squad played to their full potential in their home National League South defeat to in-form Farnborough on Saturday.

A 23rd league loss of the campaign left basement boys Whites on the brink of relegation.

Both of Farnborough’s first-half goals came in controversial fashion, a penalty and then their second coming from what appeared an offside goal by former Dover player-assistant Ricky Holmes. That left the play-off chasing team ahead at half-time after Nick Dembele had netted for Whites to put them in front at Crabble in front of a crowd of 565 on Non-League Day.

Dorking loanee midfielder Aaron Kuhl then sealed the win to complete his brace in the second half for Spencer Day’s 10th-placed side, who earned a 3-1 victory - a fifth consecutive win.

“I’m really disappointed with our performance,” said Leberl, whose team are 17 points from safety with only 18 points left to play for this term.

“I’ve just been chatting to Mike (Sandmann, his assistant) about how we have done well of late, although we have not picked up enough points from those performances. But today, I don’t think there was one player that played to his full potential, which was disappointing.

“You have got to give them (Farnborough) credit. I thought they bossed the midfield from the first minute to the last.

“It was really men against boys out there at times.”

Report: Dover 1-3 Farnborough

Forward Dembele put Dover ahead on 14 minutes. But the visitors equalised 10 minutes later, as referee Ayrton Hursey awarded a debatable spot-kick when attacking midfielder Joseph Haigh went to ground under a challenge and Kuhl converted.

Farnborough went in front during first-half stoppage time, with another goal which had more than a hint of confusion surrounding it.

Both Holmes and another forward appeared well offside from goalkeeper Jack Turner's long clearance to the naked eye. But experienced midfielder Holmes lobbed Dover keeper Matthew Rowley and, much to the dismay of the home defence, the goal stood.

Leberl, without the sidelined midfield duo of Iffy Allen (ankle) and Kamon-Sherrell Assidjo (hamstring), said: “I’d like to see both back.

“The first one, Scott (Holding) has got his clearance wrong and there’s a bit of panic.

“You can generally tell by the lads’ reactions - and quite a few of our boys were in the ref’s ear, not thinking it was a penalty. It’ll be interesting to look back at that.

“It’s difficult for us to see from where we were. The second goal is a poor goal - no matter how you look at it.

“There’s a guy offside, whether he’s interfering or not, that’s my players’ argument. But we still allowed two runners to run free, totally unmarked, so we lost our concentration and switched-off a minute before half-time. That’s a horrendous time to concede a goal.

“Going in at 1-1, having not played well, at least that’ll have given us a chance.

“Then, the third goal is a totally free header from a corner, which is really disappointing. It didn’t give us a chance to have a go late on.

“The game was already dead and buried.”

Former Colchester Academy midfielder Jaiden Drakes-Thomas, 19, was on Dover’s substitutes’ bench and came on for his debut during the second half.

Leberl noted: “He’s been around training for a while.

“He’s a very naturally talented and gifted footballer. He has got a lovely left foot.

“He’s a good size, a good lad and, hopefully, we can integrate him into the squad, and he can play a big part, moving forward.”

Relegation-bound Dover visit rivals Welling on Friday before their penultimate home game of the campaign against second-placed Chelmsford on Easter Monday.