NO-ONE has been affected more than Dover Athletic by the coronavirus pandemic - and the club has also had a surprise visit off the police.

The Whites have had more matches postponed than they have actually played since the 2020-21 National League season kicked off at the start of October.

When Andy Hessenthaler's bottom of the table side play Wrexham at The Racecourse tomorrow, it will be only Dover's only 12th league game.

Having only played four league fixtures since the start of November, it is little wonder that the Whites have played less matches than any other team in the division and they have seven games in hand on high-flying Altrincham.

And when Dover returned to training for the first time this year on Monday following another isolation period due to a Covid outbreak in the squad, the police were called.

The authorities were called after neighbours at their K Sports training base in Cobdown spotted the Dover squad but the Whites were in the clear as elite sport is allowed to continue during the lockdown.

“We got stopped at the training ground,” said Hessenthaler. “We had the police there checking us.

“The neighbours had reported us that we were outside training as a group, they didn’t know that we were elite and allowed to carry on.

“They were being vigilant which is good but we weren’t breaking any rules so we were allowed to carry on.”

Dover were back in training preparing for Tuesday's first match of the year against Boreham Wood at The Crabble Ground which finished in a 1-1 draw but preparations were far from ideal.

The Whites had to play the game due to their fixture backlog despite six players still being in isolation.

“It’s not ideal at all,” said Hessenthaler. “We’ve been told that we’ve got to play and we’re so far behind that we need to play anyway.

“We’ve picked the best team we’ve got available; six players are still isolating so they can’t come back into the group yet, and Josh Passley is suspended.

“It’s a small squad but we’ve got to field a team.

“You can’t feel sorry for yourselves - I feel sorry for people that are losing their loved ones from Covid.”

The Wood took a first half lead but Dover equaliser after the break through TJ Bramble to earn a point.

It still leaves the Whites bottom of the table, eight points adrift of safety, but their position will be a lot better if they win some of the games in hand that they have on all the teams above them.

Although Hessenthaler admits his side have not been good enough at times this season, he insists the table makes false reading.

“When we play Wrexham on Saturday that will be our third league game since the end of November which is crazy," said the Whites boss

“We don’t like where we are in the league but there’s a lot of factors behind that. We haven’t been good enough for the first 10 games and we’re so far behind now, we’ve got seven games in hand on one team now."

Dover have had 10 games called off because of Covid-19 and the Whites are going to have a congested fixture list from now until the end of the season.