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Dover Athletic striker Ricky Miller joins Grantham Town

08:03, 05 December 2021

updated: 08:06, 05 December 2021

Ricky Miller has a new club after leaving Dover Athletic for the second time.

Miller, 32, has linked up with Northern League Premier Division strugglers Grantham following the termination of his Whites contract - by mutual consent - on Friday.

Ricky Miller in action for Dover Athletic against Chesterfield this season Picture: Andy Jones
Ricky Miller in action for Dover Athletic against Chesterfield this season Picture: Andy Jones

The striker returned to Crabble amid great excitement last summer, having scored 68 goals in 101 appearances during his first spell between 2015 and 2017.

But, with injury restricting his involvement, the former Luton, Peterborough and Port Vale man failed to find the net in 10 appearances for struggling Dover this season.

Grantham, seven points from safety in their league, made an approach and Miller has made the move.

“It didn’t work,” said Whites boss Andy Hessenthaler.

“He picked up an injury of late, and he’s a good friend of the manager, Dennis Green, at Grantham.

“Dennis was pestering me when he was interim manager at Telford for a little while.

“He didn’t get that job but he got the Grantham job and he’s pestered me about Ricky.

“He’s worked with Ricky for so many years at other clubs.

“I said to Ricky, do you want to go, do you want to talk to them and he pretty much said yes.

“It was amicable, I think he needs to go and play regular football.

“He’s a goalscorer, isn’t he?

“Everyone gets to a level in the end and whether he was (still) able to score regularly in this league, I don’t know.

“This league is relentless, it’s as good as League 2 by a country mile.

“For me, he’ll go and get goals and hopefully he’ll get the goals to help Grantham stay up.”

Miller hadn’t featured for Dover since a 2-1 home defeat by Barnet on October 9.

Hessenthaler believes his fitness levels may have suffered after dropping back to part-time football at Crabble.

“Do you know what, a lot of it is to do with fitness as well,” said the manager.

“You’ve got to keep your fitness levels up.

“He’s getting a little bit older now but we can’t be as fit as other teams because of the four hours' training we do a week, two on a Monday night and two on a Thursday night.

“Perhaps that’s another reason we’re picking up the injuries we are because we’re not up to speed with most of the teams who are full-time."

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