Chris Kinnear says his players will be playing for their places in the FA Cup game against MK Dons when they take the field at East Thurrock United on Saturday.

The FA Trophy first round clash in Essex would ordinarily be the highlight of the Dover schedule but with an FA Cup second round tie looming just a week later, its prestige has diminished, while Tuesday’s Kent Senior Cup quarter-final against Dartford is almost an inconvenience.

Kinnear and scout Kevin Raine went to watch MK Dons lose 3-1 at Colchester United on Tuesday night but the Whites boss hopes his players can avoid turning their attention to the League 1 promotion-chasers until after the weekend.

He said: “I’m sure the players will be focused and won’t take their eye off the ball.

“There won’t be anyone pulling out of tackles because they’re worrying about MK Dons. It’s still a week away. This is an important game for the club too.”

He added: “East Thurrock are a decent side. They have a striker in (Jason) Hallett who played against us for Concord earlier in the season. He’s a handful.

“Their pitch is not so good but they have good players and play some good stuff. It’s not going to be easy.”

He revealed: “Nothing is cut and dried about the team for the following week yet either, people are still playing for places.

“We can do well in the Trophy. A couple of Conference Premier teams have drawn each other and there’s no reason why we can’t keep going.”

Dover have won all seven knockout games so far this season and Saturday’s 4-0 win at Chelmsford in Skrill South made it 10 wins and just one defeat in their last dozen games.

Kinnear said: “We are close to the play-offs now but we have a couple of weeks out of the league again now.

“At some stage we’re going to be playing two league games a week for a long while. It happens, it’s why you need a squad.”

Dover will field a much-changed side for the Kent Senior Cup last-eight tie at Dartford – losers of seven straight games – with Kinnear saying: “It’s a bit of a shame, we want to win it, but the timing of it between the Trophy and FA Cup game is not great.

“We want to win but we’ll pick a side of academy and squad players.”