Dover Athletic (1) 1 Bath City (0) 0 – Saturday 17 January 2026 – Enterprise National League South – The Megger Community Stadium
Match Report by Mark Stillman.
Jalen Jones’ early header consigned Bath City to a fourth straight away defeat in the league.
The Guyana international nodded home the only goal of the game at Crabble to leave the Romans empty-handed.
Jordan Alves squandered a glorious one-on-one chance in the last minute of normal time.
But aside from that Darren Way’s side struggled to create more clear openings as they failed to net at Dover in the league for a fifth successive visit.
Matt Bowman replaced Mitch Beardmore in the only change from Tuesday’s night’s energy sapping loss to Southend United.
While City didn’t show signs of tiredness from that and their longest journey of the season in the opening minutes, they metaphorically fell asleep defending their first set-piece which gifted Dover an eighth minute opener.
Harrison Sodje’s delivery from the right saw Wiles-Richards stumble over teammate Luke Russe and opposition striker Decarrey Sheriff, leaving him horizontal and allowing Jones to head home from five yards.
Bowman curled wide after Dan Greenslade’s corner was cleared back to him with George Nikaj’s low skidded effort rolling wide of Wiles-Richards’ right post with the keeper outstretched.
City’s best opening 45 arrived in added time. Alves’ clever run off the ball was spotted by Joe Raynes, whose lofted pass fell to him inside the penalty area.
The midfielder got the better of Harry Beadle and nudged it back to Brad Ash, who skied high and wide from near the penalty spot.
Dover manufactured the first opening after the break when Nikaj made room in the box but dragged just wide of the right post when he should have hit the target
The hard-working attacker saw another attempt take a huge deflection off Kieran Parselle to take it just wide of goal.
Parselle proved a threat at the other end. Greenslade’s corner was handily flicked on by Bowman to the back post but the City captain was just beaten to it by Ryan Hanson.
Substitute Jaiden Putman was picked out down the right by Alves but with players waiting in the middle he went for glory and spooned horribly over.
Dover’s own sub Alfie Matthews, fresh from an exile owing to his Baller League commitments, nearly came back with a bang as he fired against the crossbar from close range as City again made hard work of dealing with a set-piece, allowing the former Arsenal youngster to get to the ball first before thundering against the underside of the upright.
The hosts brought on Ruben Soares Jr, back from an injury layoff, to add freshness to their attack. Instead, he nearly inadvertently gifted City an equaliser.
Under minimal pressure out wide, the Portuguese striker caught his own teammates out with a woefully underhit backpass which put Alves through on goal.
With just Mitch Walker to beat, Alves took a touch too many and shot too close to the advancing glovesman, who parried with ease.
It preserved his clean sheet and ended Dover’s five game losing run in all competitions, as for the second calendar year running City’s first away game ended in a single goal defeat to an early headed goal.
Att: 846
City’s Line-Up: Wiles-Richards, Raynes, Greenslade, Batten, Parselle (c), Alves, Ash (Fisher 64), Tillson (Sheppard 82), Russe (Jenkins Davies 64), Bowman (Beardmore 83), Windsor (Putman 57). Subs not used: Sweeten, Binns.
Scorers: City – none; Dover – Jones (8)
City Bookings: none
Officials: T Sangowawa, D Doyle, D Payne, R Joss (4th)