Bullish chairman Jim Parmenter has banned talk of Dover being a small club on the National League stage and says the club is ‘ready to move into the Football League.’

Whites missed the play-offs by three points this season after stumbling over the finishing line, however despite losing 40-goal talisman Ricky Miller to League 1 Peterborough and the prospect of other players leaving Crabble this summer, Mr Parmenter has vowed that Dover will challenge again next season with a ‘streamlined’ squad, again managed by Chris Kinnear.

Mr Parmenter told the club's website: “The fans should be looking forward to another competitive season, another strong squad, but a smaller squad of players.

“We need to improve slightly. We nearly got there again, we were three points adrift and we fell away slightly in the last three or four games.”

He added: “Everyone in the club knows we need to do things slightly differently. We need to improve, we need to be more professional, we need to do the little changes or adjustments that mean we won’t make the same slip-up that we did this year which prevented us getting in the play-offs.

“The whole structure of the club on and off the field is going to be reviewed. We’ll look at how we’re doing everything, from travel to training, and try to make the changes that mean we’re that much more competitive next season.”

Mr Parmenter claimed that the budget his board have agreed for next season means that Dover should be considered a major player in the promotion race.

He said: “I’m sick and tired of hearing the statement ‘we’re punching above our weight’ or ‘we’re a small club, we’re minnows.’

“We are not going big-time and obviously we’re not a Tranmere, but on the other hand we’re a well-established club at this level.”

He added: “We’ve kept in the top-six for three years, we’ve performed really well, we’re well-respected, the ground is an A-graded ground, we’re ready to move into the Football League, our supporter base is growing and we do things as professionally as we can.

“I don’t want to hear anymore than we’re an underdog fighting above our weight because I think we have moved on from that.

“Our budget being as competitive as it is, I think we should be considering ourselves an established National League side.”

Mr Parmenter said the board had held ‘long discussions’ with boss Kinnear but there was ‘never any doubt’ that he would return as manager, despite murmurings in some quarters that his position might be under threat.

He said: “Chris and his team will continue as management for next season. We’ve had a long discussion with him previously and now with the board about what format the squad should take. The board are very keen to have a highly-competitive, smaller squad of around 18 players.

“We’ve now signed off the funding for that on a more full-time basis.”

Mr Parmenter also revealed the club were upgrading their floodlights to Football League standard and enhancing Crabble’s corporate facilities this summer and are investing in a house towards London in which they can put-up players brought in from further afield.

He added: “It will be a great asset for us to be able to bring players down from the north and give them accommodation. That’s happening. We’ve arranged for accommodation to be available to players so Chris is free to offer players from elsewhere a contract.”