Andy Hessenthaler believes seven wins could be enough to secure Dover's survival in the National League.

Ahead of Saturday's home derby with Bromley Whites sit in 18th, with 31 points from 29 matches.

Twenty of those points have come from the last nine fixtures, and manager Hessenthaler feels a similar return during the closing four months of the campaign would keep Dover out of the drop zone.

While Guiseley needed 51 points to stay up in 2016/17 Barrow survived with 49 points last season, and Halifax (47 points in 2015/16) and Welling (45 points in 2014/15) both achieved the feat with less.

Hessenthaler, who is targeting the 50-point mark, said: "We know what we've got to do, I think everybody says 50 don't they? I think that's the mark.

"I've looked at the league over the years, I think a few years back 45, 46 kept you up so we'll look at the 50 and go from there.

"We feel we've got to win another seven games out of 17. It's still a tall order but I think we can do it."

Hessenthaler admitted the best side won in Saturday's home FA Trophy 2-1 defeat to Harrogate but said he could not be too critical of his players, who remain unbeaten in five home league matches – four of which they've won.

He added: "We didn't really get going which is a shame because if we had I think the result might have been different but we move on to the Bromley game and go from there.

"Hopefully we can continue the run we've being having in the league but it won't be easy, they're one of the form teams at the moment.

"We've had them watched, we know what they're about, I know what the manager's (Neil Smith) about I've played with him, he's very similar to me in terms of his personality so it's going to be a tough ask for us but we won't let what happen against Harrogate affect us.

"It should be a good afternoon, I'm sure they were watching Saturday, I'm not sure how much they'll have learned but we'll see on Saturday."

Midfielder Bedsente Gomis is available after serving a three-game ban while defender Scott Doe and wide man Ricky Modeste return after being cup tied.

Josh Passley came through 45 minutes against Harrogate without any reaction to his hamstring problem and fellow wing back Bobby Joe Taylor (hip flexor) should be fit, having been left out of the Trophy game to give him another week's rest.

Foward Tobi Sho-Siva was a surprise inclusion on the bench against Harrogate after completing a month's loan at Chelmsford City, and defender Jack Connors has also returned to Crabble after a spell at Hampton & Richmond.

However, Hesenthaler did not rule out further loan deals for those players not figuring regularly in his matchday squad.

He explained: "We can only have 16 in a squad and these boys, who are not getting games they need to be playing at this stage.

"Some are out of contract at the end of the season so I think they're not silly, we'll look at that in the next week now that we've got the league just to think about. The Christmas period is over and we're pretty much Saturday to Saturday for a while."