Dover Athletic's new manager Mitch Brundle not afraid to give more youngsters first-team chances in Kent Senior Cup clash at Chatham Town
05:00, 17 January 2023
updated: 10:39, 17 January 2023
Mitch Brundle insists Dover tonight won’t be afraid of giving more youngsters first-team experience in the Kent Senior Cup.
Whites are set to visit Chatham, this season challenging for promotion from Isthmian South East, in the Second Round of the competition.
Dover have had great recent success in bringing players through from their Academy while Whites’ current Academy players this season enjoyed FA Youth Cup success.
They reached the Third Round before they were beaten 2-1 last month by Premier League Brighton while present Academy players Kieron Agbebi and Freddie Oliver were unused substitutes on Saturday for their 2-1 home loss to Ebbsfleet.
“I’m not someone who will be worried about putting someone on because of their age,” said Brundle, on Monday named their new manager.
“If they’re good enough, they’ll play. Tuesday is another good game to highlight different positions and see different players taking on different roles.
“We’ll go in there [Dover's clubhouse] and sort everything out ready for it.
“We haven’t got a big enough squad to fully flip it round. So we’ll play what team we think is best in terms of getting minutes into players.
“It’ll give youngsters a chance and maybe some players who haven’t been playing, as well, including Will Moses who’ll be back [from suspension]. Obviously he didn’t play on Saturday.
“It’s vital we use the squad and we will continue to do so. We have great contact with the Academy and we’ll continue to use that.
“We had three from our Academy on the pitch on Saturday and we’ll keep using that to our benefit. The boys that have come in have been fantastic.”
Kevin Hake’s Chats beat Ashford 5-4 on penalties in October after they drew 2-2 in normal time in the First Round.
