Dover boss Chris Kinnear prepares to renew acquaintances with leaders Forest Green on Saturday, claiming it is amazing the clubs still meet as equals.

Whites host Rovers in a National League game screened live on BT Sport at 12.15pm – the teams’ fourth meeting in 12 games spanning this and last season.

Green visited Crabble on the final day of last season and in the first leg of the play-off semi-final four days later, winning both games 1-0, although Whites did draw the second leg in Gloucestershire 1-1 before Rovers lost to Grimsby in the Wembley final to remain at this level.

Kinnear said: “It’s amazing that with the money they continue putting into the club and the players they sign, that we are able to compete on a fairly level playing field with them.

“It’s no different to last year really, they have the same aspirations and have brought in some expensive, experienced players which we are just not able to do.

“It’s not going to be easy but no games at this level are. Hopefully, we are able to get something out of it. We have shown we are not no-hopers.”

Dover got back to winning ways at Southport on Saturday and Kinnear claimed the reaction in some quarters to back-to-back defeats over the Bank Holiday weekend had been ‘ridiculous, really’.

He added: “I don’t tend to look at the table – although I know Forest Green are top – but I’d imagine the teams above us are the big ex-league clubs.

“We’ve come a long way in the last couple of years and – you tell me we’re in the top-10 – it’s important not to get too carried away.”