THE bad blood between Kent rivals Ebbsfleet and Dover has continued following the Whites’ 2-0 win in the Skrill South game between the two sides on Saturday.
In the run up to the game, Fleet vice chairman Peter Varney criticised comments made by Dover boss Chris Kinnear in which he claimed Ebbsfleet are “throwing money at people” and that “money does buy success, I don’t care what anyone says.”
On the eve of the game at Stonebridge Road, Varney replied by saying: “This is not the first time that the local newspaper in Dover has printed lies about the wages paid by our club and it is quite pathetic and is done deliberately to stir up animosity between the two clubs.
“The irony is that I know for a fact that Dover’s annual player wage bill is higher than ours. Chris Kinnear is quoted today as saying we pay players more than £1,000 a week which is nonsense and I would challenge him to publicly make clear who he is referring to.”
Following the game, which Dover won 2-0 thanks to a freak Preston Edwards own goal and an Elliott Charles strike, Fleet boss Steve Brown, who was assistant at the Crabble last season, refused to shake Kinnear’s hand.
Both clubs signed a number of players from the other in the summer and Brown said: “There were some extraordinary things said in the last couple of days about our wage structure. They have a bigger budget than us. I don’t know why they try to spin it.”
On the handshake snub, Kinnear added: “That’s up to him, isn’t it? It doesn’t bother me. I don’t know why they want to build up a thing between Dover and Ebbsfleet. He wanted Nicky Forster’s job, didn’t he? And he’s been bitter ever since.”
Meanwhile, the Fleet confirmed that they disciplined striker Billy Bricknell after the ex-Dover man made comments about Kinnear on twitter after the game.
In a reply to a Dover fan, Bricknell tweeted: “…do you think I need to prove anything to that w***er and his little side kick jake… Do me a favour!”
