Stuart Lewis considers a point against Chesterfield as another valuable step towards Dover’s target for the season.

A physical affair necessitated a man-of-the-match performance from the midfielder as Whites edged closer to their 50-point safety blanket.

In a contest short of the clinical touches required in the final third, the hosts displayed admirable resolve.

Read more: Relive Dover's goalless draw at home to Chesterfield

Lewis said: “It was a real tough game, one of those where you have to win your individual battles and where there were a lot of second balls and a lot of running, closing down and tackling.

“That’s what you have to do at this stage of the season, everyone’s working to earn a point. That point is massive now, it takes us to 48 and two away from our target so we’ll keep pushing over the next four games to get there and beyond.

“The first half was very disjointed it lacked that little bit of quality in the final third, but in the second half there was a spell where we really turned it up a bit, I had a shot that hit the side netting and we had other chances.

“On the balance of play a point was probably fair, we made some good blocks at the end. We go away with a really hard-fought point and a clean sheet against a team in form. Five unbeaten and nine points from five games, we’d have taken that at this stage of the season. We’re all really digging in and pushing hard to get over the line, hopefully we’ll do that next week."

Dover travel to Barrow on Saturday with an opportunity to distance themselves further from Havant, who visit third-placed Solihull.

Lewis added: “It’s obviously a tough place to go and a long journey, but I think we travel quite well. We’re quite experienced, people underestimate us at times so we’ll go there and give everything we’ve got. Hopefully we’ll get the win and then we’ll see where that takes us.”

Andy Hessenthaler’s men have welcomed increased strength in depth in recent weeks, with right-back Josh Passley slotting in well for Danny McNamara following his Millwall recall and Inih Effiong impressing in the absence of the injured Jamie Allen at the weekend.

Anthony Jeffrey and Ricky Modeste are also striving to play their way back into starting contention.

“I think with the squad we’ve put together now there is competition for places and everyone knows that any good team needs competition,” admitted Lewis.

“You can’t just have people going in and picking their shirts up every week, there has to be that competition. Everyone is fighting and that’s what you need to do until we’re mathematically safe.”

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