Dover suffered their fifth consecutive away defeat at Southport after a hard-fought game which they were unlucky not to get anything from.

Dover were without England Semi-Pro triallist Stuart Munday, his place in the starting line-up was taken by Jimmy Strouts. Midfielder Neil Le Bihan's return to fitness saw him return to the starting line-up, at the expense of Lee McRobert who was on the bench.

Southport went very close to taking a first minute lead when ex-Liverpool, West Ham and Galatasaray midfielder Mike Marsh hit the post.

Southport took the lead on 40 minutes with the help of some good fortune. Hyde caught a ball in from the left comfortably but collided with Simon Beard and dropped the ball. Ian Arnold was on hand to fire the loose ball into the back of the net.

Dover were given a boost in the 58th minute in the form of a man advantage. Le Furlong was dismissed for a second bookable offence after kicking the ball away.

After the sending-off it was pretty much all one way traffic, with Dover searching for an equaliser. The equaliser arrived on 74 minutes. McRobert's cross was headed past Dickinson from close range by Joff Vansittart.

Once the scores were level it looked like Athletic would be the most likely victors but on 82 minutes they were caught out again by Arnold. His shot on the turn from the edge of the box beat Hyde and gave his side all three points.