King's Lynn Town climb up the National League table as Dover Athletic are defeated at The Walks

Vanarama National League

King's Lynn 2 Dover 0

Goals from Rory McAuley and Adam Marriott ensured Lynn recorded successive league wins for the first time this season as Dover's manager was shown a red card after the final whistle.

The Linnets have now won three of their last four league games, firmly putting the 5-1 defeat to Sutton United behind them ahead of next weekend's much-anticipated trip to Portsmouth in the FA Cup.

Today's fixture saw the two National League teams with the worst goal differences come up against each other at The Walks, but the Norfolk side have now registered back-to-back clean sheets.

Lynn made two changes from the team who beat Barnet in midweek with new signing Kyle Callan-McFadden coming straight into the eleven in place of Danny Lupano, who has played his last game for the club following the end of his loan spell. Sonny Carey replaced the experienced Ryan Jarvis in central midfield.

Speaking after the game, Linnets manager Ian Culverhouse said competition for places has been a big boost for the club with Adam Marriott coming off the bench to score.

"That's a beauty of having a squad," he said. "If you can get everyone fit, and we have got competition all over the place, it's only going to drive people on and whoever has got the shirt has got to keep the shirt because they know someone in the stand or on the bench is ready to take it."

He added: "We have got to make sure we are at it for every game and I thought the boys were excellent today. From start to finish I thought we were at it. They [Dover] banked up and tried to keep the ball in front of us so we had to be patient and we got the goals at the right time."

Steven Rigg's early header was comfortable for Archie Mair in the Lynn goal as Andy Hessenthaler's side fashioned their first opportunity just short of the five minute mark.

Captain Michael Clunan's pass ran away from McAuley, wearing a Terry Butcher-esque head bandage, but Dover failed to capitalise on the opportunity with a dangerous ball into the Lynn box amounting to nothing.

Culverhouse could be heard telling Lynn not to "force it" with a quarter of the game gone before Carey found himself in space on the edge of the Dover penalty box. His effort lacked any real power and was easily stopped by Yusuf Mersin.

Carey and Clunan were seeing plenty of the ball in the middle of the field with the latter playing a ball into the feet of Kairo Mitchell who turned brilliantly before striking narrowly over the bar.

With just over 30 minutes played, Ross Barrows surged down the right flank following a one-two with Sam Kelly, before cutting the ball back for Alex Brown whose effort narrowly missed an oncoming car on Tennyson Road.

Moments later Carey was booked for a cynical trip as Dover's new signing on loan from Hull City, Ryan Hanson surged forward with the home side exposed.

But the deadlock was broken just before half-time with McAuley soaring highest as he emphatically headed into the net from a corner for the Linnets.

Kelly missed Lynn's first chance of the second-half, firing wide from just inside the box, before Rigg also saw his effort go just past the post for the away side.

And moments before being replaced by Marriott, Kelly dragged another effort wide as Lynn sought to double their lead. But it was Rigg who had the next best chance, again heading straight at Mair with a free header for the Kent side.

Linnets substitute Cameron King was brilliantly denied by Mersin when through on goal, and Mitchell was off target with an effort on the turn after an attempted overhead kick from Marriott. Mitchell would have been disappointed to miss the target again when played in down the right side with a two-on-two as the game really opened up.

The home side then killed the game off in the 86th minute as Mitchell was brought down as he turned away from Hanson inside the box. The Hull midfielder was shown a second yellow card and Marriott sent the keeper the wrong way with the resultant penalty.

Dover manager Hessenthaler was shown a red card after the final whistle for dissent while Culverhouse and his side can start to look up the table after accumulating nine points from four games. They now sit in 12th place in the National League. Dover remain second from bottom with six points from nine games.

Lynn: Mair, Barrows, Brown, Smith, Callan-McFadden, McAuley, Clunan, Kelly (Marriott 65), Carey, Loza (King 65), Mitchell. Subs: Southwell, Power, Lupano

Dover: Mersin, Passley, Wood, De-Havilland, Rose (Azeez 61), Rigg, Munns, Gregory (Collins 63), Ekpiteta (Bramble 75), Adams, Hanson. Subs: Cumberbatch, Smith