Things Are Much Different These Days For Inih And Dover

They were in different leagues for a start, you might say – how could they possibly have something in common?

Here goes. Both were sitting six points away from a dotted line that they desperately wanted to get to the other side of.

Yeovil were mid-table in League Two with the play-offs in sight while the Whites were mired in an early relegation battle with the French coastline seemingly closer to the White Cliffs than National League safety.

But a year on they’re matched against each other, live on BT Sport this Saturday teatime. How did that happen? As Dover frontman Inih Effiong explains, a few tweaks were all that was needed.

“Before Andy Hessenthaler came, things weren’t right,” he said. “Little things like playing us all in our natural positions made us feel so much better.

“When you’re down there, people might question your mentality or effort. But we had some really decent players with the right attitude, and we worked hard every day we were in.

“His [Hessenthaler’s] philosophy is to work harder than anyone else. We hardly had any days off,” he continued. “But in the end, we got the reward we deserved by getting out of the situation we were in.”

You only need a quick glance at the table to see how far things have come: 12 places higher, 17 more points on the board, more goals scored, less conceded.

There was also the small matter of knocking League One Southend United out of the FA Cup last weekend.

“The season has been good. We started really well but we dipped a bit,” he said.

“Our home form was killing us, but we beat Eastleigh and then the massive win last week against Southend is always going to boost you.

“We haven’t been out of most of our games, if we can cut out little mistakes then we can be contenders. We feel we’re good enough for the play-offs. We just take every game as it comes, and we can’t get ahead of ourselves.

“With the form we were in away from home, if our home game could’ve matched that we would’ve been top of the league. It’s fine margins in this league.

“We’re not too far away but we need to get a run going. We had to change our team a lot due to injuries so now we have a consistent team in place we can push up the league.”

Footballers are often modest people. But the former Woking, Boreham Wood and St Albans striker needed no reminding of one stat in particular.

“I’m pleased with my form. I’ve already got as many in the league this season than I got in the whole of last season, so I’ve got to be pleased with that,” he said.

“Last season there was a lot going on behind the scenes, but everything is straight this season and I can focus all my energy on my football – and I hope that has shown with how I’m performing this season.”