Chris Kinnear admits Dover must come to terms with the rigours of the travelling required in Vanarama National League.

In the past three weeks, Whites have claimed a single point from away games at Forest Green, Chester and Halifax and the Dover boss says the mileage is taking its toll on their semi-pro players.

He said: “It’s not an excuse. When you’re in a national league you know you’re going to have to travel far and wide. The higher you go in football, the further you have to travel.

“It’s part and parcel of the game, although I have to admit it is quite tiring for people. We didn’t get back from Chester until 3am last Wednesday and then we’re up to Halifax on the Saturday.”

Dover’s season began with a 768-mile round trip to Barrow and Saturday’s return trip to Halifax took them past 6,000 miles travelled in their 13 road games in the league so far this season.

Kinnear said: “This year there is a lot of travelling. The majority of sides are in the Midlands or North, some years there are more southern teams.

“We’ve had Barrow, Gateshead, Tranmere and Torquay already, we’re going to Grimsby just before Christmas. It doesn’t get any easier.”

Kinnear admitted it made home form paramount. He said: “We have done well at home in the past year. For the previous four or five, our home record was not very good. We’ve managed to turn that around.”

Aldershot are the visitors to Crabble on Saturday (3pm) and he added: “It is another game against an ex-league side. They are another massive club compared to us but we’re above them in the table.

“We’re inexperienced. I think we have about 20 league appearances in our squad in total. We’re coming up against players in this division who have more than 400 each.

“That said, we go into the game expecting to win – which just goes to show how far we have come as a club.”

Defeat at bottom side Halifax saw Dover slip out of the play-off places and seven points behind leaders Cheltenham, although Kinnear said: “If you’d have told me we’d be joint-fourth in December, I’m sure everyone would have taken that.”