Dover coach Darren Hare says his players need to believe in themselves more.

Whites ended a run of four straight defeats in the National League by defeating Eastleigh 3-2 at Crabble on Tuesday night behind closed doors.

It comes on the back of a 3-3 draw at Yeovil in the FA Cup, where they finally lost on penalties, but Hare knows his squad are capable of performing at this level.

"It's an excellent result for us," he said. "It was a tough game in difficult conditions and we started quite poorly, yet again.

"We showed great character again, we showed excellent character on Saturday (at Yeovil in the FA Cup) and we took that into this game as well.

"We're delighted for the boys. Even when things have been going against us and results haven't been great, we've been saying if you keep working hard and believing that things would turn around. The last two performances, I know we went out on penalties in the FA Cup, we have started to turn things around.

"We've got a young group, with the exception of one or two. We keep trying to inbed our philosophy. Any team of Hess', he demands a certain amount of work-rate, desire and passion and the lads are starting to realise that it can get you the rewards.

"We believe in the group, they've got to believe in themselves more and we'll get a few more points along the way and be absolutely fine."

Louis Collins added to his brace at Yeovil with his first league goal while Ade Azeez scored a late winner on the counter attack to grab the three points late on.

Dover conceded two more at the other end but Hare was pleased that his strikers are starting to deliver as Whites have more of a foothold in games.

"When you're conceding at the other end, the momentum shifts towards the opponents and strikers find themselves up there chasing after things," he explained.

"It's really nice to have some play and possession, create some opportunities. It's great for Louis to score again, fantastic for him, and Ahkeem (Rose) did great when he came on for half-hour, he really gave us an impetus and some legs up there.

"I'm really delighted because they got their rewards for reacting well to going behind at home and going on and winning the game.

"It's a very counter-attacking league if I'm honest. A lot of teams decide to sit quite deep behind the ball and then break. They would have seen how susceptible we were to the counter attack against other teams so to do it to them was great. When it went back to 2-2, the game could have gone in any direction."

Dover host bottom side Altrincham on Saturday, who have started with three draws and a defeat in their first four matches.

They drew 1-1 at Hartlepool on Tuesday night, although they missed an injury-time penalty in that match which would have given them their first victory of the campaign.

Hare warned: "There's no easy games in this division. Altrincham will be a totally different type of team to play against, they got a great point at Hartlepool so they're going to be no mugs. They are a big, strong side and will be tough opponents.

"It will be great for us if we can get another result them, as we've not got a game for a couple of weeks (after that).

"It will be nice to get everyone back fit moving forwards as that's hindered us a little bit, we haven't been able to keep a settled squad or side purely down to the fact that we've lost one or two. That's just been the amount of games we've had to play in a short space of time."

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