I made sure I was fit, nice and healthy for the opening day by not going out on Friday evening. This was partly due to myself watching my finances with a busy, football packed month ahead but it is always nice to go to football without a hangover. Last season I seemed to pick up a habit of getting absolutely bladdered the night prior to our biggest games, Gillingham and Aldershot included so I will try to be prevent myself from falling into that trap again.
Anyhow, I met Champ at 11am and we set off for the Workies for a few jars of lager and general incessantly crap usual banter with the LADDDDZ. The topics of discussion included some of the old favourites such as "When will Fish finally lose his virginity" and "When will Russell learn to be able to finish a pint within 45 minutes" plus the inevitable chat about wrestling for those of us overgrown boys who enjoying watching sweaty men touch each other up in lycra for a 'fake' programme. I then got accused of having shit staines on the back of my DAFC shirt after some puculiar brown/black marks appeared on the back of my shirt after I disspeared to the toilet for 10 minutes. It wasn't, I can assure you.
Next up we headed to the newly re-opened Old Endeavour around midday for more lager in the developing sunshine. Its great to have more alternative pubs to go to on a match day as on the way to the ground there are very few suitable venues. The Workies is great for assembling and drinking cheap pints, but it does get very dull in there after a while. The Sportsman is small and crap, The Bull is too expensive and The Cricketers has declined rapidly over the past few years, even though they still boast the fittest barmaid in Dover. You'll know the one I mean, a sister of a certain ex-Dover player with an absolutely cracking pair of tits. Yummeh.
Anyway, getting a bit carried away there. The OE have put on a new matchday deal for Dover home games, all pints are £2.20 from 12-6 and a beer and burger combination costs £4.95 til 3. I didn't sample one of the homemade burgers myself but the various people I were with seemed to really enjoy theirs which did not suprise me, as they smelt and looked delicious. I really like the surroundings in there. You can sit round the back on the lovely decking, being able to smoke whilst watching the little duckies in the lake. Theres a nice sofa and plenty of seating for conversations inside and overall has a really friendly atmosphere. I can see why it won't be to everyones flavour, having not got a pool table or a dart board but I enjoyed it in there nonetheless, and as I say its great to have another pub-stop off on the way. The cheap pints of stella flowed down pretty beautifully and I was relatively tipsy by the time I headed for the ground around 2:15pm.
After another quick pint of Fosters in the Centre Spot before kick-off, I was out on the terraces and eagerly anticipating the new season kick-off as I could sense everyone else was around me. And we delivered, albeit after a very sloppy and shaky opening 10 or so minutes. Billy Bricknell opened his account for the season on the 15th minute mark, prodding in from close range after a free-kick was floated into the box. JUSTICE it was too as Purcell had raced through on goal before the referee decided not to give us the advantage but a free-kick instead. So it felt marvellous to score from it. It felt even better when we raced into a 3 goal lead 8 minutes later after a quick George Purcell brace. The first was a rebounded effort after their keeper saved his initial shot with his second being a great touch and snap shot on the edge of the area which found the bottom of the corner. Delirium. At this point I felt that we were going to absolutely piss this tinpot league and absolutely run riot in the game, having gone 3 up without really getting out of second gear. We didn't, but I was chuffed to go into the second half with 3 goals to the good.
Our fourth goal came via the hour mark with Bricknell notching his second, a great finish from the 18 yard box after bamboozling their defender. Unfortunately we would not add anymore to the tally, although James Walker was unfortunate to see his close range header chalked offside when he appeared to be onside. All throughout pre-season we seem to have suffered from really shit linesman and Saturday was no exception. Lets hope this isn't a precedent for the season. A decent performance from most of the team, although if I were to nit-pick I have to say we need to tighten up at the back as a better side would have punished us on Saturday. Simmonds needs to be less wasteful infront of goal also after such an impressive pre-season. But overall the frontline of Donovan, Billy and Georgie looked awesome and no defence will look forward to facing them. Lee Hook recovered after a nervous looking start to put on a decent display, which will hopefully cement him as our number one goalkeeper.
Overall though I was chuffed to kick the season off with a 4-0 win, even though my mood was hampered somewhat by learning of Woking's 5-0 hammering of Sutton at GGL. I know we should concentrate on ourselves but that result does nothing to help alter my view that Woking should walk the league this season. And I would really fucking hate that to happen seeing how badly their BBBness has gone through the roof on the connie south forum. Wankers. 4-0 wins for Tonbridge and Dartford away at both Maidenhead and Weston respectively means that we don't lead the the table, although I'm not as concerned at their results. The crowd of 937 was a tad dissapointing, but we can expect that in Mid-August when everyone is still away on holiday or playing that god-awful sport they call cricket. Atmosphere wise I don't think we were as impressive as we can be. We started the first 25 minutes very loudly but seemed to switch off for most of the game after that. I'm not slagging anyone off and I hope nobody takes offence but I don't think we would have made as good impression on our new players as they have done of us. Still, there is plenty of time to rectify that with two away games coming up.
One of them being Thurrock tomorrow evening, which I am very much looking forward to. With Truro/Newquay exciting weekend coming up it is an expense I could do without, but as its my good friends Russells birthday I shall be induldging in a few bevvies. Having not beaten dropped a point against them since getting promoted to the BSS, I would hope for another comfortable victory here. I don't expect us to repeat our 7-2 drubbing of last season but I would be gutted if we drop points here. So bring it on, Thurrock is always a nice little trip by coach. Hopefully I'll compile another boring report before I head off to Newquay on Thursday evening, as these things are incredibly time-consuming! So sorry if I'm missed any important details off but I really fancy making myself some lunch now. I will end each game with the table and results, which is always something interesting to look back on in my boring life.
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Peacock (02) 
201
Boylan (77) 
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