DOVER Athletic's gruelling run of away games finally comes to an end on Saturday with a trip to Hampshire to face Eastleigh.

By then Whites will have endured a freak fixture schedule of eight away games in nine, which was the last thing manager Steve Browne needed as he tries to bed down so many new players.

But a run of three home games, starting against Harrow Borough on Tuesday, will help to compensate.

Browne is expecting a difficult test at Eastleigh, who have risen rapidly from the Wessex League. They lie sixth in the Ryman League Premier table after Saturday's 1-1 draw away to Braintree, with 26 points from 17 games.

Browne said: "Eastleigh play on a massive pitch and are a good footballing side. Now we have to turn credit into points. Without being over-confident, at some stage someone is going to be on the end of a good beating. In our situation you have got to dig deep, and then dig a bit deeper."

Saturday's 1-0 defeat at new Ryman Premier leaders Hampton and Richmond left Whites with just 12 points from 17 games.

But Browne said: "Their chairman said to me after the game, 'I apologise for what happened today. There was no way we should have won'.

"I can't fault the players. If it had been a boxing match it would have been stopped. That's how much possession we had during the game. The penalty decision was diabolical, a disgrace. It should have been a 0-0 game at the very worst."

But he added: "Dominating games and scoring goals are two different things. We're putting a lot of balls into the box, but scoring goals is a problem.

"Defensively we're solid and Craig Cloke was outstanding on Saturday. What we have to do is keep believing. We will get better and better."

Browne has to jettison some of his squad in the next week or so, although he says he may still bring in a couple of new players as well. He will be without Grenada international Byron Bubb for the next two weeks because he is away in Caribbean Cup duty.

Browne is hoping to fix up a deal with French goalkeeper Dominic Jean-Zepherin, who enjoyed a good debut on Saturday.

Pat Mullins has gone to Sittingbourne on a month's loan, while fellow keeper Kevin Readings has left the club by mutual consent.