The last game of the Martin Hayes era was as typically of him, a fucking terrible game where we were fairly fortunate to salvage a draw. It was certainly the most grim match-day I have felt in years at a league game, one similar to our various defeats during our Ryman premier relegation season; a very small crowd (which was announced at 735 even though it looked no more than 600), with a very quiet, eerie atmosphere and pretty much all the fans and players looked like they didn't want to be there. It was also the first time I have felt totally unbothered by our scoreline - in fact a big part of me was hoping that we would lose so that Hayes would finally get the shove.
And it looked like that wish would be granted until Donovan Simmonds popped up with an equaliser late on into the game. It was a great finish, and while my initial reaction was joy at finally seeing a Dover goal scored at Crabble again, my feelings were tinged with "Shit - this may have saved Hayes' job for another week". For the remaining ten minutes of the game I was hoping for a goal either way and I felt terrible for half-hoping that one of their late free-kicks would fly into the back of the onion sack. It was a really horrible feeling to be so uninterested in my team winning but in hindsight I'm glad we rescued a point because Jim still saw through for the dreadful performance it was and sacked him anyway.
It was just another non-descript, boring, shit game; fitting for Martin Hayes' reign to end on. The only thing I can remember from it was walking round to the bar with Russell five minutes before half-time and Havant scoring from a tame shot after poor-defending. Well that justified my decision to have a beer over watching that dreadful football. Then I made a comment to Shaun Gale something about he must be glad they're playing shit like us because he's just saved his job.
Other than that the only thing I remember about the game was Billy Bricknell tearing through and missing a one-on-one early in the second half. I wasn't even particularly pissed - it was just a fucking awful game. The only other thing of note was I met my biggest blog fan, Manx White, where the poor bloke had travelled all the way over from the Isle of Man from. Looks like he chose the wrong weekend to come, but at least he met his hero ;-)
Other than the football though it was a very nice day for us all. We headed down the Endeavour at about 11:30AM for some drinks for David Bell. They had put some sandwiches on for us and of course the happy hours were there for the taking. I was relatively hungover having gone out the previous night for my birthday and had not had much sleep, so it wasn't the ideal time for everyone to offer to buy me drinks but I took them with pleasure anyway. The sun was shining and the pub was filling up, I even got the chance to speak to Dave's son Joe who said he's read my blog piece on his Dad and liked it, so at least I have done one decent thing in my life now. He personally invited me to his funeral which takes place tomorrow at Barham Crematorium 11:20AM, so it will be the final send-off to a great man and a Dover fan we will never forget.
Anyway, the pre-match stuff was the usual banter; football, sex, wrestling, smoking, Ryan Reid, that sort of stuff. I did struggle to get through the stellas though and drunk less than I normally would. The real fun began after the game though as we headed back down the OE for karaoke again. This time was arguably better than last time as I murdered such classics like Eternal Flame, If You're not the one and It wasn't me, while Bryan Hall provided a couple of classics, particularly with Country Roads. Ryan Reid was comically bad as he sung through his tears while Phil Palmer wins the award for "most drunkiest person I have ever seen". He managed to fall asleep while standing up by the bar and managed to knock down two females and Chris Hunt with him. Classic stuff. At least he got home alright although the phrase "going out and getting absolutely Phil Palmered" has already been coined.
Although the football has been really shit this season, the company has been great and it feels great having so many friends at football where we can have a laugh even when our team are crap. Much love to you all.
A big thank you to Reginald Harris too, the FUCKING LEGEND, who gave me a lift home to Herne Bay again afterwards as well as Russell one to Canterbury, thus saving me a really long shitty train journey where it would be another battle to stay awake. Reg, if you're reading this, you're a star and I owe you a couple of packs of biscuits.
The biggest bonus of all though was waking up with over £25 still in my wallet, a massive achievement for me. Usually i'll be chuffed with a fiver, but that just goes to show how generous everyone was with buying me drinks on Saturday.
So we wave a not-so-tearful goodbye to Martin Hayes and welcome the young, fresh and dynamic duo of Nicky Forster and Steve Brown to the club.
I must say I was intrigued when I had a text from Phil to say that our new man would be Forster. I knew Nicky as a prolific football league striker, particularly at Brighton and Reading but quickly wikied him to see what he had recently been up to. Then I remembered "Oh yeah he was manager at Brentford last season" and it seems like it was desperately unlucky not to miss out on the job permently. Apparently one of the reasons he missed out was because he was still 'mates' with the players so they wanted a fresh manager with no baggage. Fair enough, but their loss is our gain hopefully. He is young, hungry, ambitious and seems to be a very likeably but respectable figure, who should be able to motivate and get the best out of our squad of players. As an excellent striker he should be able to give strong advice to Purcell, Bricknell and Simmonds while Steve Brown's several hundred appearences for Charlton and Reading should rub off well on our backline. Between them they will have a strong list of contacts in the football world too, as well as their huge depth of experience. I for one am extremely excited by this appointment and believe it will be the right decision to appoint him ahead of Justin Edinburgh, who was also rumoured to be in the run-in. But anyway, the appointment of Forster has already injected a huge boost of confidence around the place and instead of looking at a potential sub-500 crowd on Saturday we should be looking at breaking the 1000 barrier. Carshalton will still be a stern test for us but the players will hopefully all be fired up and desperate to impress the new manager.
Will Forster be a player/manager for us? I hope he makes himself available to play, yes, as he probably would still be a class act at this level. Hopefully he will make himself the final option though to concentrate more from the sidelines, a bit like Hessenthaler did for us. Only play when its necessary and you need to be called upon.
Either way, a massive welcome to Nicky and I for one cannot wait for Saturday to come around.
As for Hayes, I did feel a tiny bit of sympathy for him after his sacking, even though I was desperate for it to happen and had been calling it for weeks. After all he is just a bloke trying to feed his family. Then I realised, he'll get a nice juicy pay off from it and he hasn't exactly shown any remorse for bombing out various players at this club who were more than happy to be here. After reading his interview where he blamed for the fans AGAIN for our poor performance on Saturday, citing negative chanting, despite the only couple of chants started in the game were "Dave Bell's Black and White Army", my sympathy completely evaropated. Good riddance to a terrible manager who blamed everyone else for his shortcomings but himself.
The one man I do feel sorry for is Paul Joynes. A lovely bloke who genuinely loves this club and can hold his hands up and admit that they were not good enough. I sincerely hope he goes onto have success elsewhere because he's a top bloke and a true class act.
What will I remember Hayes for? I would like to say the cup run, but in the honest truth, Adam Birchall and the rest of the players were the real heroes. It would be harsh to completely take away any credit from him but without Birchall we simply would not have got a replay against Farnborough and we'd have been out of it. Thats the sorry truth.
Yes a finishing place of 7th was not as bad as made out but with the resources at his depth and the overall poor quality of our league, we were terrible for most of the season. Again, without Birchall's 34 goals to constantly bail us out we would have finished a damn sight lower, as we've found out at the start of this season.
In truth, I will remember Martin Hayes for his terrible man-management skills, his various dud signings he made and the way he would constantly blame anyone but himself for his shortcomings. I would actually rank him as the third worst manager we've had since I've started supporting the club, just behind Ian Hendon and Richard Langley.
Anyway, lets hope for a great start in the cup on Saturday for Forster and Brown. The positive vibes are back and we will get Crabble rocking. Dover til I die
| Saturday 24 Sep 2011 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basingstoke | 4 | - | 3 | Farnborough | |
 Sam-Yorke (56) Sills (71) |
(33) Connolly (58) Woodyard (81) (89) Appiah (91) |
 614 |
|||
| Bromley | 1 | - | 1 | Welling | |
| Harwood (86) |
Cumbers (64) |
648 |
|||
| Chelmsford | 0 | - | 0 | Boreham Wood | |
| 1,042 |
|||||
| Dartford | 3 | - | 1 | Tonbridge Angels | |
| Bradbrook (11) Harris (65) Sheringham (78) |
 Collin (87) |
1,385 |
|||
| Dorchester | 0 | - | 1 | Woking | |
| Ademoia (63) |
|
||||
| Dover | 1 | - | 1 | Havant and W | |
| Simmonds (78) |
Fogden (38) |
735 |
|||
| Eastleigh | 2 | - | 1 | Staines Town | |
| Slabber (19) Brown (26) |
Everitt (06) |
401 |
|||
| Hampton & Richmond | 3 | - | 1 | Weston-S-Mare | |
| Simmonds (29) Tarpey (51) Simmonds (59) |
Grubb (90) |
391 |
|||
| Salisbury | 3 | - | 0 | Eastbourne Borough | |
| Fitchett (46) Brett (84) |
(53) |
667 |
|||
| Sutton Utd | 4 | - | 1 | Maidenhead Utd | |
| Watkins (18) Watkins (38) Griffiths (44) Watkins (07) |
Thomas (60) |
1,332 |
|||
| Thurrock | 1 | - | 1 | Truro City | |
| Bowditch (86) |
Hayles (31) |
201 | |||
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Woking | 11 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 27 | 11 | 16 | 26 |
| 2 |  |
Dartford | 11 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 25 | 11 | 14 | 26 |
| 3 | |
Welling United | 11 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 28 | 14 | 14 | 23 |
| 4 | |
Sutton United | 11 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 21 | 14 | 7 | 23 |
| 5 | |
Basingstoke Town | 11 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 19 | 13 | 6 | 19 |
| 6 | |
Salisbury City | 11 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 19 | 14 | 5 | 18 |
| 7 | |
Weston-S-Mare | 11 | 6 | 0 | 5 | 22 | 19 | 3 | 18 |
| 8 | |
Chelmsford | 11 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 19 | 13 | 6 | 17 |
| 9 | |
Eastbourne Borough | 11 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 21 | 19 | 2 | 16 |
| 10 | |
Truro City | 11 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 13 | 16 | -3 | 16 |
| 11 | |
Maidenhead United | 12 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 16 | 24 | -8 | 16 |
| 12 | |
Dover | 11 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 15 | 9 | 6 | 15 |
| 13 | |
Bromley | 11 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 18 | 21 | -3 | 14 |
| 14 | |
Farnborough | 11 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 16 | 18 | -2 | 13 |
| 15 | |
Tonbridge Angels | 11 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 21 | 24 | -3 | 12 |
| 16 | |
Dorchester | 11 | 4 | 0 | 7 | 13 | 20 | -7 | 12 |
| 17 | |
Havant and Waterlooville | 11 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 17 | 20 | -3 | 11 |
| 18 | |
Eastleigh | 11 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 9 | 19 | -10 | 11 |
| 19 | |
Staines Town | 11 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 13 | 15 | -2 | 9 |
| 20 | |
Boreham Wood | 11 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 19 | -9 | 9 |
| 21 | |
Hampton & Richmond | 10 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 12 | 21 | -9 | 6 |
| 22 | |
Thurrock | 11 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 8 | 28 | -20 | 6 |
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