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Assistant manager Nicky Southall thinks Dover's players shouldn’t have any problems motivating themselves for their match against Notts County.
Whites will host the Magpies on Saturday, looking to end a six-match losing run in all competitions and earn a long-awaited first victory of a torrid season.
Ian Burchnall’s men, who are sixth in the National League table, arrive at Crabble after beating big-spending Wrexham 3-1 last weekend while Dover are bottom and 24 points from safety following a 3-1 loss at Dagenham on Sunday.
Notts County strengthened their squad on Tuesday, signing midfielder Zak Brunt on loan from Sheffield United for the rest of the season.
Southall said: “They are probably the biggest club in the league.
“How do you get yourself up for it? It’s a football match so you should be up for it.
“It’s difficult to say how you can’t be up for a game like this. They’re probably going to have a big following.
“Our pitch is probably not going to be particularly easy - this pitch (at Dagenham) was lovely to play football on. But our pitch is probably a bit more of a leveller.
"We have just got to compete and you could see we did compete.
“Notts County will bring a few and, hopefully, our fans will get behind us. They have done so far. They’ve been terrific.
“They know the problems at the club at the minute and everyone is just desperate to get that monkey off our back with that first win.
“If we do get that first win, I think it will give us a lot of confidence because we are not far away.
“We just need to defend better and get a little bit of luck - but you make your own luck by defending better.
“If we defend right and show a siege mentality, hopefully, something will drop for us in the final third or we will get that little rub of the green.”
Full-back Junior Tiensia is due back at parent club Millwall and discussions are ongoing between the clubs over a possible loan extension, according to Southall, while Gillingham midfielder Henry Woods’ present loan deal is set to expire after the County match.
Gills boss Steve Evans has said he is open to loaning Woods to a club higher in the National League or in League 2.
Southall says the club are looking to be proactive in the January transfer window but they are also open to giving Academy players first-team chances.
On Woods, he stated: “We have got another week with him.
“He knows us and has worked with us before, so we would like him to stay. We aren’t blessed with loads of midfielders as it is, with TJ Bramble still out with a back injury.
“So we have to be quite proactive in the market. There are going to, hopefully, be a few coming in.
“But let’s look at the Academy as well.
"We have some really good players in there who have been training with us and we have some good midfielders coming through.
"It’s about trying to tap into that Academy because, every year, you see them doing well.
“We had young Noah Carney on the bench again (at Dagenham). We have got George Wilkinson in there who has been training with us, along with Luke (Baptiste), so we have some good midfielders.
“But obviously, we would like to get a bit of experience because I think that’s what we are missing.”
Meanwhile, four-goal top scorer Aaron Cosgrave has been recalled from his season-long loan by League 1 AFC Wimbledon.
There had been fears wideman Travis Gregory would be out for the rest of the season but Southall revealed: “I think we have got slightly better news on that.
“We don’t think it’s quite as bad as we first thought. We had a second opinion.
“He, basically, just needs a couple of weeks of low-key stuff just to get that knee healing and, hopefully, we can go from there.
“But hopefully, we will have him back in a better period of time than we first thought.”
There are concerns James Caton could be set for a spell on the sidelines, though.
The 28-year-old winger was a half-time substitute at Victoria Road but came off with a groin injury.
