Barrow AFC faced two very different Dover Athletic sides last season, which is largely down to the way their manager Andy Hessenthaler managed to haul them to safety.

Under his predecessor Chris Kinnear, the Whites barely laid a glove on the Bluebirds, who had 83 per cent of the possession when they won 2-0 down in Kent in September 2018, at a time when the hosts were rooted to the bottom of the National League.

By the time they came up to Holker Street, they had turned full-time and were a much tougher prospect, which was demonstrated by them coming back from two goals down in the final 20 minutes to record a 3-2 win that left AFC manager Ian Evatt fuming.

That was part of a brilliant end-of-season run that saw them go undefeated in their final nine games, of which they won six, which meant they had plenty to build on going into Hessenthaler's first full campaign of his second spell in charge.

On the whole, Dover have gone back to punching above their weight in the last two months, especially away from home, even going so far as winning their first four games on the road - no mean feat given the distances they have to travel.

Having picked up wins at Hartlepool and Maidenhead since then, they go into tomorrow's match at Holker Street with the best away record in the division, although they were given a rude awakening at Aldershot Town.

The Whites were hammered 4-0 by the struggling Shots on Tuesday night and Hessenthaler left in doubt his feelings on the performance at the Recreation Ground.

He told Kent Online: "You can't concede goals like we did and the first one's a joke.

"It's just one ball down the middle, headed back no challenge on him and the fella's just gone through and scored.

"We were just too deep and we didn't get any support to Inih [Effiong] and that's not what we've done in the last seven away games."