Dover boss Chris Kinnear refused to criticise Manny Parry after the defender's mistake handed Fylde victory at Crabble on Saturday.

The National League game looked to be heading for stalemate until 13 minutes from time when centre-half Parry blotted an otherwise excellent afternoon by gifting possession to Fylde striker Danny Rowe.

The league's leading marksman was not about to pass up the chance and buried a shot into the bottom corner to seal a 1-0 win for the visitors and make it three games without victory for Whites.

Athletic remain well placed in fifth, just two points off leaders Sutton, and Kinnear said on another day they could have easily taken the points.

He explained: "Their keeper (Jay Lynch) pulled off three great saves. If any of those had gone in I don't think they could have had any complaints and then we got punished for not clearing our lines

"I don't know where that came from, that's not what we try to do but Manny's been brilliant for us to be totally honest.

"(Until the goal) he hadn't given them a kick, I thought he'd played well but we all make mistakes, I'm sure he'll learn next time and he'll get on.

"We didn't dig him out, you're going to make mistakes, usually we make the other side make a lot more mistakes.

"They're a very experienced side with some good players. They had a bit of the ball on the halfway line and didn't create many chances but we had three great chances. On another day they would have gone in and we'd have won and moved on."

Former leaders Whites have scored just once in their last three matches, but Kinnear says there is no need to panic.

Before Tuesday's single goal defeat at Dagenham & Redbridge his side had gone 10 league games undefeated.

Kinnear said: "We're not down, we're still only two points off top and for this young side, which we've just put together they've been absolutely magnificent.

"They're going to have hiccups we said this at the beginning of our good run, in the middle and near the end of it. You've got to just deal with it and not go away from what got you there in the first place.

"We will talk about it obviously this week and hopefully come up with a good performance next Saturday (when they travel to Bromley)."