The quotation above was part of my concluding paragraph for my blog on the Eastleigh game. While I was wrong about the 'great games' and them 'bringing good support', the rest of it was sadly true as Dover came crashing back down to earth with another lacklustre performance at Crabble, which stretches our winless run at the cursed ground to 8 games and counting.
Actually, it would be a bit wrong to go on about curses, the simple fact is we're just shit and seem to have a phobia of replicating our very strong away form at one of the best grounds that non-league football has to offer. Passing football is replaced by hoofball dross and we can't seem to hit a cow's arse with a banjo in front of goal. No shape, no rythym, no real clear tactics or direction seem to be a common theme whenever we return back to the ground on the back of a strong away performance.
There are less problems at home for a Jeremy Kyle show participant than for Dover Athletic. So what exactly is our problem?
Is there too much pressure from an expectant home ground that can get on players backs
when things aren't going well? Possibly, it doesn't take long at Crabble before the first mis-placed pass is met by a chorus of grunts and cries of "for fuck sake". Particularly when we're chasing the game late on and something goes wrong the crowd gets impatient - guilty as charged myself at times. But this is something that previous Dover teams have successfully overcome and they're paid handsomely enough to deal with a level of pressure.
Do the players just feel uncomfortable in their fairly luxurious surroundings for this level IE quality ground and a pitch that would be the envy of football league clubs? Possibly, its quite bizarre that we play such a long ball game at Crabble with out surface but then play some great passing football on dreadful pitches like we did when we won at Longmead back in April.
Are away teams just coming to Crabble to play for a draw and we're still struggling to counteract them? While certainly true that at times there are sides that come to Crabble, park the bus and occasionally go on the counter act like Weston and Hampton last season, I think this is being used up too much as an excuse by the management recently. I certainly didn't feel that Eastbourne sat back the whole game - they had several chances to score, even though them playing the ball down in the corner in the last minute was pretty pathetic. Likewise with Chelmsford - while both of them were solid defensively I saw no real signs of them just being content to sit back in their own halfs. And if this is such a so called problem then why have we still not found any solutions against it yet?
Do away sides just thrive in the surroundings and don't feel scared or intimidated when facing us? I think so. We don't attack enough or make enough gambles at home, I think teams come to Crabble in the expectation they can get something out of the game these days, whereas under Hess they would mainly fear a hiding.
Does the fact we do not train at Crabble and most of our players are London/Essex based hinder us? This has been suggested as a problem but not a good enough excuse for me. Dover sides in history have done OK without all being Kent based players and Eastleigh on Saturday was hardly a close distance for them either.
Or Is it just concidental and we're seriously unlucky? Certainly not, despite what some of the heads-in-sand brigade believe. Our home form has seriously stuttered the past two and a half years and its not getting any better.
Well, either way a damning statistic of just 3 paltry league wins since the start of 2012 speaks for itself. Our full record since the turn of the year is: W3 D4 L6. That sort of home record is relegation. To expand that record even further, all 3 of those wins came in our first 5 home fixtures and we have gained a measly 3 points out of the last 8 games. This isn't Dover fans being melodramatic like opposition fans sometimes suggest - its a genuinely terrible and worrying set of affairs for us and needs to be addressed ASAP.
The game itself was a similar story to most of our home defeats. The only goal of the game came via Jamie Slabber's spot-kick in the 13th minute after Tom Wynter's reckless lunge. It was one of those "Why o why has he done that there" moments as their was no way he was going to win the ball from the position he was in. I've not actually seen the highlights of it yet but at the time nobody in the ground appealed against the decision.
Chelmsford saw out the rest of the game without too much threat from the home side, while offering little penetration going forward themselves. They certainly passed the ball round a lot better than us and maintained a better shape but they really didn't look like all that, they were certainly not as impressive as the Chelmsford sides we played in our first two seasons here and that's not sour grapes either. I will say that Kenny Clark is a very good defender though and nulified most of rare attacking threats, including a superbly timed tackle when Willock closed in on the goal in the first half.
We did have a few moments late on where we could have perhaps earned ourselves a point. Mainly offered by resident scapegoat Barry Cogan who drew two fine saves out of Stuart Searle, the first a curling effort from outside the box and the second one which was tipped onto the top of the post. Nicky Forster also headed narrowly wide from a Sessesgnon cross but there was little clear cut efforts from the Whites, even after playing out the final ten minutes against ten men with Anthony Church dismissed for two soft yellow cards, by a referee who was determined to make the game as stop-start as possible.
The final whistle was greeted with a small chorus of boos from some sections of the River End - rather unwarranted as I think the players tried their best - it just wasn't good enough.
Once again we resorted to aimless hoofball dross, not using the width that we're supposed to be using. We played unbelievably narrow which was pointless considering we had no height up front in the second half with Willock and May both carrying injuries, the former being substituted at half time.
Some tactical selections were pretty strange to say the least. Sessegnon had to play right-back (Huke mysteriously missing) instead of his familar right-wing position and struggled early on with his positioning, although he did grow into it a bit more and did well supporting down the right in the second half. But the real bizarre sight was when they went down to ten men and us chasing the game, we decided to bring on Danny Webb, an ex striker and now defender on for Billy Bricknell, an out and out striker, and then moved Ian Simpemba up front. The weird gamble didn't pay off and neither did I agree with it. Billy wasn't having the best of games but if the ball fell to him in a loose position then he'd have more of an idea what to do with it! Same with Modeste going off in favour of Jamie Smith - while the former wasn't enjoying the best of games against his former employers, he's always a threat and only needs to produce that one key moment in the game. I'm yet to be convinced by Smith, who seems to do nothing but cut back inside and pass backwords rather than taking on defenders and sending a good ball in.
The bottom line is though many players from the team that did so well and made us proud as Eastleigh churned out poor/average/anonymous performances and we can't afford for that to happen. Watt, Simpemba, Walker and Sessegnon did ok but I can't say much for the rest.
Not sure on all this Forster love-in on his playing capabilities either. He does make intelligent runs and you can tell he's played at a much higher level but he always seems to be too greedy and not trusting in his team mates which isn't a good sign.
Its a sad state of affairs when a crowd of 852 against Chelmsford is considered a good one but with out current home form I've slowly started to accept that at £12 a pop and such a poor quality level of product that anything over 800 should be considered as decent. And it wasn't helped by an unusually poor following from the Clarets - in my guestimation I would be surprised if there was that much more than 70 of them.
And another thing - the queuing in our bar is an absolute fucking joke. It was absolutely heaving at the bar when I arrived there about 7:15PM yet for some reason we only employ 2 bar staff to deal with such high levels of custom. What's the point of serving cheap beer if nobody is there to serve it? I saw several people walk away from the bar without buying anything and who can blame them? I would have done so myself if I didn't get someone in queue to get mine in as well - the poor bloke ended up with an order for about 10 drinks!
So basically, life is shit and the optimism is slowly starting to drain away. A record of W2 D3 L1 isn't disastrous by any means and this stage but you've got to say it is disappointing when you look at our fixtures, I would have targeted a minimum of 12 points out of that lot.
So what should we do to combat the home form? Do we start resorting to desperate measures such as bringing in a spiritualist to help players get over their fear of playing at Crabble? Do we start buying voodoo dolls to try and curse our opponents? Do we start driving a coach to Crabble and treat it as if is an away game for the players? Or do we just need to sort out are tactics, selection and formation?
Probably the latter. Either way, I want it resolved and I want it resolved now. I would love to see a backlash against Hayes & Yeading tomorrow where we really fucking take the game to them. However, when I walk up the Crabble slopes tomorrow it will certainly be with hope rather than expectation.
COYW
| Tuesday 04 Sep 2012 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basingstoke | 3 | - | 2 | Truro City | |
 Daly (46) Lake (66) Sam-Yorke (07) Sam-Yorke (09) |
Yetton (39) Moore (71) |
 301 |
|||
| Billericay | 3 | - | 3 | Tonbridge Angels | |
| Swaine (38) Poole (58) Green (08) |
Lovell (02) Collin (86) Judge (91) |
369 |
|||
| Bromley | 4 | - | 0 | AFC Hornchurch | |
Pacquette (12) Joseph-Dubois (23) Joseph-Dubois (04) Pacquette (53) |
408 |
||||
| Dorchester | 1 | - | 0 | Eastleigh | |
| Reid (90) |
404 |
||||
| Dover | 0 | - | 1 | Chelmsford | |
| Slabber (14) Church (81) |
832 |
||||
| Havant and W | 2 | - | 1 | Hayes & Yeading | |
| Pearce (00) Dawson (51) Ramsey (68) |
Anderson (12) |
475 |
|||
| Maidenhead Utd | 3 | - | 2 | Farnborough | |
| Tilson-Lascaris (03) Pratt (49) Behzadi (68) |
Makofo (58) Steinke (67) Ciardini (74) |
359 |
|||
| Salisbury | 3 | - | 2 | Bath City | |
| Fitchett (40) Brett (58) White (06) |
Griffin (17) Keats (77) |
857 |
|||
| Welling | 2 | - | 0 | Eastbourne Borough | |
| Lafayette (51) Hughes-Mason (76) |
471 |
||||
| Weston-S-Mare | 1 | - | 0 | Staines Town | |
| Villis (00) |
181 | ||||
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Salisbury City | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 13 |
| 2 |  |
Dorchester | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 13 |
| 3 | |
Boreham Wood | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 11 |
| 4 | |
Maidenhead United | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 8 | 3 | 11 |
| 5 | |
Chelmsford | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 7 | 2 | 11 |
| 6 | |
Bath City | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 8 | 3 | 10 |
| 7 | |
Welling United | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 9 |
| 8 | |
Basingstoke Town | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 9 |
| 9 | |
Dover | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 9 |
| 10 | |
Hayes & Yeading | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 9 | 1 | 8 |
| 11 | |
Farnborough | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 8 |
| 12 | |
Eastleigh | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 7 |
| 13 | |
Eastbourne Borough | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 7 | -1 | 7 |
| 14 | |
Staines Town | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 6 |
| 15 | |
Havant and Waterlooville | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 11 | -4 | 6 |
| 16 | |
Bromley | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 9 | -2 | 5 |
| 17 | |
Billericay Town | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 13 | -3 | 5 |
| 18 | |
Weston-S-Mare | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 8 | -5 | 5 |
| 19 | |
Tonbridge Angels | 6 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 10 | -3 | 4 |
| 20 | |
Sutton United | 6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 12 | -5 | 3 |
| 21 | |
Hornchurch | 6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 | -6 | 3 |
| 22 | |
Truro City * | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 9 | 2 | -2 |
Nicky needs to use the YOLO tactics.
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