Andy Hessenthaler was delighted to see Dover lay their Dagenham bogey on Tuesday but he re-iterated his belief that they are not safe yet.

Dover's excellent 3-1 win moved them up one place to 19th on 46 points, and they now have an eight-point cushion over Havant and Waterlooville, in 21st.

The National League's bottom three, Aldershot (35), Maidstone (29) and Braintree (28) look most vulnerable to the drop, but Hessenthaler says it would be dangerous to write anybody off at this stage.

The Whites boss said: "We haven't got a good record here (at Dagenham) or so I was told leading up to the game.

"I wasn't aware of that but I did do a little bit of homework and it wasn't great so it's nice that we've put that to bed a little bit.

"It was a good win and there's a buzz in the camp but we still won't get carried away, the job's done not done yet.

“It’s all still to play for, all we can do is focus on ourselves and make sure we do everything we can to get the results we need sooner rather than later."

The platform for Dover's victory was laid in the first half as goals from Jamie Allen and Bedsente Gomis put them 2-0 up before Alfie Pavey added the third courtesy of a cheeky backheel five minutes into the second half.

William Wright pulled one back with 21 minutes remaining but Whites held out to secure back-to-back wins.

Hessenthaler said: "I thought we were fantastic first half. Our minds were going back to the Hartlepool game where we were 2-0 up and threw it away but we got the third goal which was great.

"To be fair to them they had a right go and they took a few risks because they had nothing to lose.

"They caused us a lot of problems and the header they had to make it 3-2, if that had gone in it would have made it a nervous time for us.

"We made a slight change to the shape but on the first half performance we deserved to win the game."

Hessenthaler was pleased to see his two strikers score, particularly Allen, whose last goal was on February 9.

He added: "I'm really pleased for Jamie because he works so hard, he was a handful all night.

"It was only because they were causing a few problems in wide areas that we ended up pushing him wide.

"That probably took a bit of his game away but his goal was fantastic and him and Alfie were excellent.

"Alfie scored with a backheel as well which was nice and cheeky – I didn't realise he had that in him but it was a great finish."

Whites travel to second-placed Solihull Moors on Saturday and Hessenthaler says they will do so full of confidence.

He added: "We've got a tough game Saturday, but we'll go there with no fear. We'll take a lot of positives from the Dagenham game, and they'll be a little nervous of us because of the win we've just had."

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