Hi everyone, I had a suprisingly really enjoyable evening at Crabble last night as I watched Dover Athletic make history by reaching the semi-finals of the Kent Senior Cup. It was actually a rather entertaining game which a lot of you stay-away turncoats missed out on.
While I said that I would avoid drinking for this one, typically I ended up going out for a few pints. I met Jared in town before 6 so what better way to kill some time by having a few pints? We made it in time for the happy hour in the Old Endeavour so had a few in there before popping up to Crabble. AWESOME!
Upon entering the Centre Spot I expected to see a few familar faces but this wasn't the case. Out of my age group, only me and Jared turned up. Obviously there were a few familar faces on the terraces such as Champ, Mark Winter, Kingy, Fisher, Dover Dave, Darren and the like, but it was a crowd that would be fitting for a reserve game. Whatever happened to the reserves by the way?
Quite astonishingly, I predicted the crowd would be 212, which was only 1 person short of what it actually was. How incredible is that? Superb.
With the admission prices being full price at £12 and £6, it was no wonder why we had a crowd size that would be fitting for the Boreham Wood's of this world.
Needless to say though us heroes turning out for a Kent Senior Cup game in mid-January were rewarded with an entertaining game of football, which a Dover side consisting of fringe 1st team players and academy lads dominated for most of the game. I had my eye particularly on Scott Crane, our right-back who I used to play football with down Herne Bay park when I was a young innocent soul and Tom Axford, a lad who I know quite well. Without being biased I thought Tom was one of the standout academy players, having a solid game in the centre of midfield, an unusual position for him (he usually plays at right back). But he acquitted himself really well with some decent distribution of the ball and some good tackles, despite being small in build and height.
Most the academy players actually gave a good account of themselves with Sean Raggett looking like a rock in the centre of defence and subsitute Tom Loynes promised when he came on late, and almost scored on a few occasions, yet saw his efforts well saved.
Welling themselves had a similar looking line-up to ours, with former white John Whitehouse being welcomed back to Crabble in between the sticks, Jack Parkinson and Anthony Achaembomg in central defence with Warren Mcbean upfront. The latter was humourously subbed in the first half and was visibly pissed off with the decision as he booted the dugout. Other than that most of their side was made up with reserve players with the pick of them being the greatly names "Steadman Calender" which had sounded like Stickman over the PA. They also had a previous winner of SKY's football icon programme and he looked fucking awesome.
As for the game, we controlled most parts of it. With Simmonds and Bricknell up front together linking up very well, their defence were in for a rough ride. But amazingly we didn't stick the ball in the net until just before half-time as we missed various golden chances. Bricknell hitting the post from 10 yards out sticks in the mind as does Simmonds blocking a goal bound header on the line.
But we did get our reward in the end as Harry Baker, who looked very inneffective at times, unleashed a strong drive outside the area which was too strong for Whitehouse and flew into the top bins. From where I was standing near the Centre Spot I thought it was Bricknell responsible for the goal and didn't realise otherwise until someone told me in the second half!
Impressively, the game was being screened live in the bar. But unfortunately I ran out of money at my 4th pint so the rest of the game was watched on the terraces. Again, we were very comfortable in the second half but failed to produce a killer instinct in front of goal. There were strong fears that Welling would smash and grab and late equaliser and Kingy even promised that he would buy everyone a pint in the centre spot with his cashcade prize and we'd watch the extra time in there should they of grabbed a last minute goal. But no, we saw the game off thanks to a Battiepedia penalty. Harry Baker was hacked down by Achaembomb after running through the backline and the referee awarded a penalty. I felt it was outside the box but the generally incompetent ref thought otherwise. It should have been a red card but the referee was feeling too sympathetic in such a tinpot game and bottled the decision. Achaembomb was subsituted immedietly after. Anyway, Agustin sent Jonathan the wrong way from the spot and the tie was in the bag.
We had chances to extend our lead further with Loynes testing Whitehouse from distance which was somehow not awarded a corner by the blind linesman. But instead the game finished 2-0, a scoreline that flattered Welling in a very strong performance from the Whites. Our first teamers did themselves credit with hard-working performances and the younger lads clearly benefitted from playing amongst experienced players. A good evening in all.
One thing I like about Tinpot games like this and the small crowds that go with it is the laid back and stress free atmospheres. Everyone just engages in irrelevent but humourous discussions and Whitehouse received lots of friendly banter with Kingy providing most of the witty-isms. I had a funny moment myself actually. Some strange bloke near the goal was bellowing out to our players about some sort of bullshit of "keeping it on the floor" (which we had been doing for most of the game). So I piped up with the classic inbetweeners quote of "FEISTY ONE YOU ARE" which was one of my more prouder moments, being a generally unfunny person.
A solid evening was made all the much better by the kind-hearted Reg offering me a lift home, which I gratefully accepted. It prevented me from getting home after midnight and instead I ended up back in my house just minutes after my bus was due to leave Dover. RESULT!
I really do owe Reg for the amount of lifts he's given me this season but a person as generous as him seems unwilling to accept offers of money. I'm sure I'll get him his payback at some point, I just need to work on it.
Anyway, see all you fuckers on Saturday. Thats if you part-time scummers actually decide to turn out for it. Salisbury at home, all to play for, get your arses up Crabble. COYW
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