by Kevin Redsull

Dover Athletic’s place at the top of the draws column in the Blue Square Bet South table is threatening to disrupt their bid to make the play-offs.

Saturday’s 1-1 home draw with Salisbury City was Whites’ 11th stalemate of the season – the highest for any club in the division.

Manager Nicky Forster (pictured) said: "We know we are drawing too many games and we have got to start converting our dominant periods of play into victories."

To add to the frustration of Forster and the Crabble faithful, seven of those 11 draws have been at home and if Dover had won five of them, they would now be level on points with third-placed Welling United.

As it is, Whites are five points behind fifth-placed Sutton United and could lose further ground this weekend because Hampton & Richmond Borough, their scheduled opponents on Saturday, will play Northwich Victoria in the FA Trophy instead.

Forster felt the Salisbury game was "a classic case of a game of two halves," saying: "We weren’t good enough in the first half and Salisbury deserved their half-time lead. But we took the game to Salisbury in the second half and were the better team."

Individually, the Dover boss picked out the performance of George Purcell up front while centre-half Ian Simpemba won the sponsors’ man-of-the-match award.

Another new face is Sean Raggett, who has signed a two-year contract. The 18-year-old central defender is the first player to graduate from the club’s academy to the first-team squad.

Elsewhere, Dover will play Hythe Town at Reachfields in the semi-finals of the Kent Senior Cup to be played by March 31.