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New-look Dover may be taking small steps at the start of the season but one man in their camp has already made big strides.
Injuries have meant Louis Collins has spent much of the last two years on the sidelines.
A prolific goal scorer in youth football, the 19-year-old was released by Scunthorpe last year and his attempts to kick-start his career at Sevenoaks last term were cut short.
So with three goals in his last three outings for Dover, things are looking much brighter for the diminutive striker.
“I’ve proved to myself something that I didn’t think I would already,” he said. “Fingers crossed it gets better.
“I’ve really enjoyed it and I’m happy to get a couple of goals over the last few weeks. I didn’t expect to play as much as I have but I’ve had chances and taken them.
“I think I’ve surprised myself so that’s why I’ve settled in. I’ve grown in confidence and got a few goals and I’m more relaxed now when I’m playing. I’m quite happy with the levels I’ve got to.
“I’ve loved being back in full-time football. I’ve come back to training every day and playing games.
“When you’ve had so much time out of the game and that’s all I’ve ever done – play football – what else would I rather be doing than playing full-time football? I’m so happy now and it’s been brilliant at Dover.”
Injuries have sadly been a common theme – “what haven’t I had in the last two years!” – but it makes the youngster appreciate his return to full fitness even more.
And he’s one of the few people able to take advantage of lockdown as he recovered from his last setback – a knee injury – while there was no football taking place across the country.
“It’s felt nice to be back and fully playing,” he added. “It’s been really difficult in the last two years. It’s been a player’s nightmare, I don’t know how much I’ve played in the last two years.
“I had a bad ankle injury two years ago and was out for six months, then when I came back and hadn’t done proper leg work over the recovery time, I tore my quad. I came back from that and within a few weeks I did my ankle again so that was a few months.
“I came back at Sevenoaks and played some games, then in training I had a shot and did something in my knee. I thought it was quite bad and after a couple of scans we found out that I’d chipped a bit of cartilage so I was out for six months with that.
“My knee happened at the best time in some respects as a week after my operation we went into lockdown so I was able to do my recovery and everything during that period. It meant I was able to get everything right and when we were able to play again I was ready to go.”
His first goals arrived in a Dover shirt at Yeovil in the FA Cup and he followed it up with a neat finish against Eastleigh at Crabble at the end of last month.
He’s still learning his trade in men’s football, let alone the professional game, so Collins can take great heart from the promising start he’s made.
“I’ve had a few games off the bench and a couple of starts in the last few games,” he added. “I had two chances at Yeovil and scored, a third one that I didn’t score.
“Then against Eastleigh I had one chance and scored so in terms of form, chances-wise, then I’m pretty happy with what’s been put in front of me.
“I’m doing alright but I think I can do better, there’s more goals to be had for sure.
“The level is new to me and I didn’t really know what to expect or what it was going to be like. I knew it would be a challenge but I need to improve on the pitch in terms of strength-wise with my physicality.
“It’s about learning to adapt to that, even if I can’t get bigger physically to deal with that, maybe mind-wise there are different ways to outwit defenders and get round them. There’s lots to learn, definitely.”
After chairman Jim Parmenter’s much-publicised budget cuts in a bid to keep Dover afloat during the Covid-19 pandemic, Dover’s expectations are more on staying up than going up this year.
But that doesn’t mean the players don’t have aspirations, and Collins is certainly aiming as high as possible.
“We’ve had a lot of tough games at the start of the season which has been difficult but we’ve dealt with it quite well,” he reflected. “We’ve done better than a lot of people expected at the start knowing the situation at the club. We’ve dealt with it really well.
“A lot of the players knew what it was going to be like and we’re not expected to do very well. But a lot of us want to prove them wrong. Everyone here wants to win, everyone wants to do well.
“There’s a positive attitude towards games, despite what people outside might expect it to be like, the team think we can do a lot better. We’ve got the players that we can do better going forward.
“We’ve got a good group of boys but we’ve got to put that into matches now, even games like Altrincham last weekend, we need to win matches like that. Going forwards, we need to put points on the board and start climbing up the table.”
