Hayes is looking to guide Dover to their third promotion in four years

Dover manager Martin Hayes has questioned whether his players are good enough to get the Whites promoted from the Blue Square Bet South.

Since losing in the third round of the FA Cup, Athletic have drawn 2-2 with Woking and lost 4-1 to Farnborough.

Hayes told BBC Radio Kent: "I've got to question whether we're strong enough as we are to challenge, and that will be my dilemma this week.

"I think at the moment we may well need a few faces to come in."

He added: "If I can get someone in permanently then I'll try and bring them in permanently."

Dover reached the third round of the FA Cup with wins over Gillingham and Aldershot, before going out with a 2-0 defeat by League One side Huddersfield.

"The players have got to keep their standards high," said Hayes. "No one is going to live on what we've achieved in the cup.

I've now got to question three, four, five of those players to see if they are strong enough to take us on Martin Hayes

"If they're going to allow that to creep in then I'll be looking to bring new players in and they'll find themselves in the stands."

Hayes was disappointed with the effort shown by his players in Saturday's heavy loss at Farnborough, Athletic's biggest defeat of the season.

"You generally warm down when you've worked hard for 90 minutes so they wasn't really a lot of warming down that needed doing," he said.

"It was poor. We had words and I questioned their attitude and commitment.

"I've now got to question three, four, five of those players to see if they are strong enough to take us on.

"I can't sit and wait. The club want to push on and challenge and we want to challenge at the very top."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version