Read Paul Barnes' pre-match notes from the programme from our Boxing Day clash with Dover Athletic.

Good afternoon and welcome to Champion Hill to all our fans, as well as the staff, players and supporters of Dover Athletic.

Firstly I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas for yesterday. During the busy festive period, we are often reminded that it is a time for people to come together and support one another, and this is what I felt in the aftermath of our win against Chelmsford City two weeks ago. The reaction to that three points, from the players, us on the bench, the boardroom, the volunteers and you as the fans was sensational, it felt like the whole club pulled together, especially when Jayden scored his second goal, what a fantastic eruption of noise! Speaking on behalf of myself, my coaching staff and the players, we thank you for the fantastic continued support.

I am writing this before our game with Weymouth, so can only speak about our first two games in December, but it was an excellent start to the month with four points taken from Oxford and Chelmsford. We had endured some disappointing results in November, with that heavy defeat on the road at Havant & Waterlooville, and then the early FA Trophy defeat to Taunton Town. I demanded a response from the group and so far they have duly delivered. We battled hard at Oxford, especially in the first half when they had a lot of the ball, before the excellent performance against Chelmsford, a game in which we defended brilliantly and kept our concentration throughout the ninety minutes, especially after the bust-up in the second half. I cannot fault the effort and desire of the players in those two games.

We know the value of winning our matches at Champion Hill to pull us away from where we are in the table and into a position that we feel we should be in given the quality of our squad. We are finally beginning to welcome some key figures back from injury, and given the hectic nature of the festive period, everyone knows the importance of squad rotation and that they will all have to play a crucial part over the next few weeks.

Looking at our opponents Dover, Andy Hessenthaler always puts out competitive sides, they probably haven’t picked up as many wins as they would have liked this season with a few too many draws. It has been a rebuilding process after last year but will be a tough game and they won’t let us take anything without a fight. Christmas can be an awkward period for games so we know we need to work very hard in order to come out on top.

You may have also seen plenty of player movements over the last couple of weeks. When I inherited the squad, I had 22 players, which was too many in my view, and we have been trying to trim it and help balance the books where we can. Sam Deadfield was one player who could help us do both, we could not promise him the game time and he was open to a move as he wanted to play week in, week out, and we could help give him that with moving him out to Hampton and Richmond.

Josh Hill has come back from a long term injury and moving him on loan to get minutes made sense, he has made a great start to his month at Enfield Town. Jamie Splatt was out for seven to eight weeks with an innocuous ankle injury, so needs game time at Faversham to earn his place back in our squad, as players have stepped up brilliantly during his absence. Omari Hibbert and Ashley Nzala have also gone out on dual-registration deals, we couldn’t promise them the minutes they would want with players returning, so it makes good sense to get them playing and scoring at other clubs to keep them match ready for us if we need them.

Enjoy the game today, get behind us once again, and again, a very Merry Christmas!

Barnsey