Tim Schmoll says there is no getting away from the fact that Dover are involved in a relegation dogfight.

Saturday’s 2-0 home defeat to Barrow left Whites one off the foot of the table, with just one win from their opening 14 National League games.

That victory, against Havant & Waterlooville, came on August 14, since when Dover have gone 10 games without success and Schmoll says the reality is that they need to end that sequence – and soon.

The 25-year-old centre-half said: “We’re in one right now (a relegation battle), that’s the reality of it, we can’t shy away from that fact. Every game matters, there are no second chances.

“The good thing is that we haven’t imploded and it would be easy to do that. I think in the dressing room you can get staff versus players, players among themselves whatever and we just don’t have that, so we’re sticking together.

“It’s a good group, a talented group, obviously the results don’t show that. It is 10 without a win and that’s something we need to look at and not shy away from that stat but at the same time that’s the past.

“We know the only thing we can do is move forward, we can’t just give up hope in any way, it’s a long season.”

Schmoll, who arrived at Crabble during the summer, admitted the Barrow defeat was ‘incredibly frustrating’ but he doesn’t feel Whites are too far away from turning the corner.

He is also looking forward to facing leaders Salford City at Crabble on Saturday.

He said: “We felt pretty good most of the (Barrow) game, there was good engagement, the effort was there, it’s just on the little details we let ourselves down.

“There were good vibes in the camp after Tuesday (the 2-2 draw at Sutton), we went into this game confident and everyone was up for it in that regard.

“I don’t think you could say that we lacked effort but there are a lot of good teams in the league and that means the little details matter most.

“It’s frustrating when you get to these kind of games where you give a lot and you end up with nothing.

“It gets a little dangerous. You can start bickering or going at each other but that’s not what we do and that’s a positive to take.

“Salford are a big team, with good players but we’ve shown against some teams that are up there we’ve been right in the game, so I don’t think we have any complexes about playing ‘tougher’ teams.”