New Dover defender Will De Havilland wants to get that winning feeling back into his game.

The towering centre-half suffered relegation from the National League last season with Maidstone.

But he wants to enjoy life at the right end of the table this time around with Andy Hessenthaler’s Whites.

“It was hard last year, losing a lot of games,” said De Havilland. “I’m really looking forward to winning games this season, it’s such a nice feeling to get that first home win as well – hopefully we can carry on in that vein and get more wins.

“We want to keep this winning mentality and every week keep going for the three points. It’s quite a tight-knit squad which is what you need in any environment.

“Anything is possible. Any team in this league we can beat if we’re on our game so I don’t see why we can’t aim for the play-offs.”

A calf injury to Scott Doe opened the door for De Havilland to make his first Dover start against Wrexham on Saturday.

He knows that competition for places will make sure everyone stays on their game.

“It was disappointing (not to start the season) but I’m new here,” he added. “It’s going to be tough to get into this team because we’ve got a good squad with lots of really good players so I knew it was going to be tough. It was good to play against Wrexham.

“We made it a bit tough for ourselves at first but second half they were down to 10 men. That can make it harder because they sat in and tried to absorb the pressure but thankfully we had enough to get the two goals in the end.

“We know Wrexham are going to be a good team and they are expected to do well this year. We limited them to few chances first half, it was just one goal from the long ball which was disappointing on our behalf.”

De Havilland’s Dover debut will also be memorable for an early head injury, when the defender picked up a cut just above his eyebrow – an identical injury to one he picked up last year while in Maidstone colours.

“It always happens to be fair but it’s not too bad and doesn’t need any stitches,” he said. “I did it last year, probably a bit worse than this but the exact same place amazingly!”