Dover left it late at Victoria Road as they struck in the 92nd minute of the match to snatch a point and end their run of five consecutive Conference defeats away from Crabble. It was Danny Hockton, with the fifth goal of his four match Dover career, who scored the vital equaliser, after 90 minutes of uninspiring football on an icy Boxing Day afternoon in Essex.

With Welling finally banished to the Dr. Martens League at the end of last season, Dover had to cross the Thames for this year's festive 'local' derby. The Dover side that beat Hayes 10 days ago was boosted by the returns from suspension of Neil Le Bihan and Lee Shearer. Colin Pluck and Ben White dropped to the bench to accomodate them. With all three of his strikers having scored against Hayes, Bill Williams had a tough choice but in the end decided to stick with Joff Vansittart and Danny Hockton up front, with Steve Brown on the bench again.

Dover started brightly but Dagenham were slightly the better side in the first period. Hamsher had already had a shot saved by Hyde when on 31 minutes Dover had the best chance of the half. Hockton crossed, Strouts failed to connect with a header but Vansittart hooked a well-hit volley onto the underside of the bar with former QPR keeper Tony Roberts well beaten, but the ball was hacked away.

Jimmy Strouts got into a number of good positions throughout the afternoon but the goalscoring touch that made him Athletic's top scorer two seasons in a row had deserted him. He lost his footing the area and fired over with Dover's only other clear-cut chance of the first half.

Paul Hyde made an excellent save from Paul Terry at the start of the second half to keep the scores level, and soon after Jimmy Strouts volleyed over at the other end.

The Daggers took the lead in the 59th minute when Dover failed to clear Terry's free-kick and McDougald beat Hyde with a left-footed shot.

The last 20 minutes of the match were the most entertaining as Dover looked for a way back. Neil Le Bihan came close with a first-time effort from 30-yards after Roberts had punched the ball out to him. His shot went a foot wide with Roberts stranded. Danny Hockton came just as close with a glancing header, from a corner, that went wide of the back post.

Bill Williams introduced the mercurial skills of Lee McRobert with six minutes left, taking off Vansittart and readjusting to a 4-4-2 formation with Matt Carruthers up front. The change had an immediate effect and the Whites looked much more threatening. Jimmy Strouts played an excellent pass to put Hockton one-on-one with the keeper but Roberts was quickly off his line to deal with the prolific Dover striker. Roberts then produced an unbelievable save in the 90th minute to keep out Strouts' header after Hockton's cross had caused chaos in the Dagenham box. Roberts was called on to make another save soon after when Carruthers 30-yard snapshot forced him to concede a corner. It seemed that the former Welsh international was going to finish with a hard-earned cleansheet but Hockton headed home Steve Norman's corner to give Athletic a share of the points.