Dover manager Jake Leberl insists the only magic ingredient in his squad this season has been confidence.

Leberl’s young guns continued their goal-laden start to life in the Isthmian Premier by hitting Kent rivals Dartford for five last Saturday.

It brings their tally to 24 goals in just six league matches. The next best in the division are Dulwich with 13 goals to their name.

“Confidence,” stated Leberl. “We were banging in goals pre-season and we’ve just continued that once the season has started.

“We play a certain way that gets boys in between the sticks. I’m very big on that, we haven’t got any wingers in the squad and I want the wide forward to be a forward who is prepared to get in and score goals so you’ve got extra bodies to cause havoc in there.

“That’s the way we’ve gone, it’s no secret and everyone can see that. But people have got to try and stop it. Fortunately enough, Dartford couldn’t do it.”

George Nikaj has eight goals to his name and Ruben Soares-Junior took his tally to seven with a brace against Darts.

“It’s staggering considering we haven’t got a previously-recognised goal scorer within the squad,” explained Leberl.

“Nikaj hasn’t scored big numbers, Ruben hasn’t scored big numbers, none of the boys have scored big numbers wherever they’ve been. They’ve all scored goals but not big numbers.

“We keep creating the chances and the more goals they get, the more confidence they get.

“We’ve scored five, six and seven in pre-season, then eight in the first game of the season. We generally create a lot of chances by the way we play.

“I find it really exciting, this is our ethos and philosophy. Lots of teams play different ways, lots of times centre-halves have the ball, but I want to get the ball forward and create as many chances as we can.”

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The victory over Dartford was Dover’s first Kent derby league win since 2019.

“We’ve put the Kent derby hoodoo to bed, people told me how long but I tried not to pay attention,” admitted Leberl.

“Five years. It’s unbelievable, isn’t it? Thankfully that’s been put to bed.”

The excellent performance against Dartford was a great way to bounce back from a midweek FA Cup replay loss at home to lower-league Sittingbourne.

Leberl was disappointed with the reaction to their cup exit and, while he understands the doom and gloom of recent years, he wants more positivity around his new and vibrant squad, acknowledging that there will be setbacks during the campaign.

“There’s going to be loads more lows, the first big low was the FA Cup defeat, which was a low,” added the Dover boss.

“I was gutted for everyone involved in the club, I really wanted to get on a good cup run to galvanise the whole club but it wasn’t to be.

“I am really enjoying it this season. That’s why I was disappointed with the reaction last week, I know it was a setback. There’s been so much negativity here for so many years that they are almost waiting for us to fail to be negative.

“They’ve got to understand, the average age is 22 which probably the youngest in the league. But how are they going to get experience? The only way is by playing games and learning from their mistakes.

“It’s a real joy to be around a young, hungry group of boys who want to do well for themselves and the club.”

Dover are without a game this weekend due to their FA Cup defeat. They return to league action with a trip to Carshalton on September 21.