The Bees suffered their first defeat of the season as an injury time winner from Inih Effiong gave the visitors all three points at The Hive.
Darren Currie’s side made plenty of chances but were left to rue those missed oppurtunities as Dover capitalised from a late set piece.
Follow a cagey opening 10 minutes, the opening chance of the game fell to Jack Taylor who fired over from Elito’s corner.
David Tutonda was next to try his luck but his shot was no trouble for Lee Worgan in the visitors goal..
A quick counter attack from the Bees saw Jack Taylor lay it off to Akinola however his shot was charged down as Dover continued to fruatrate us and stem the flow of the game.
The Bees had a penalty claim as Ephron Mason-Clark went down in the area. But referee Elliot Swallow waved away the protests, right at the other end Callum Reynolds made an excellent sliding block to deny Dover the opening goal.
Into the second half and Mason Clark flashed a ball across the box but no one in a Bees shirt could get the vital touch, the winger caused problems for the visitors all evening and was the Bees bright spark throughout the game.
The Bees had a golden chance to take the lead but Elito’s back post header was excellently saved by Worgan. Dunne then missed from six yards from the attack that followed, as Currie’s men really upped the anti in the second period.
It was Dunne again forcing Worgan into another decent stop as his strike from the edge of the box was palmed away, the Dover keeper did well to ensure his save didn’t fall to any oncoming attackers.
In a rare second half attack Bobby Joe Taylor struck the crossbar with a powerful strike from 25 yards. This effort seemed to bring the visitors into life and they began to frustrate the Bees into the latter stages of the match.
The sucker punch came in injury time as Dover snatched the points, a late corner was cleared only as far as Jai Reason who launched a powerful effort that Loach could only parry as far as Effiong who calmly headed home.
Just moments later the final whistle blew, condeming the Bees to their first defeat of the Vanarama National League season, they will look to bounce back when we welcome Chesterfield to The Hive this Saturday (17th August)
