So I signed off the first part with us having just enjoyed a 6 match winning streak right before Christmas, which had seemingly propelled us into the title race mix. Indeed, we could have topped the league on Boxing Day if we had picked up one of our customary victories over Tonbridge Animals and providing that other results involving Welling and Salisbury had gone our way. But instead this is point where things would start to go horribly wrong.....
Tonbridge Angels 2-1 DAFC
One of the most painful football experiences of my life this. Not particularly for the sheer embarrassment of losing to a club of such insignificance, that just merely added to an all-round terrible day.
I don't mind games being segregated. In fact I quite like it - it gives you your own end and it's generally better for atmospheres. What I don't like it 12PM kick-offs and over the top police presences, just because Tonbridge fans incessantly whinged about DRUNKEN Dover supporters in previous outings to their gaff. The main claim being that Dover fans broke a trampoline in a pub beer garden the previous April - which wasn't the case. It was just a few boisterous fans jumping up on a trampoline that was already broken. Ok, they shouldn't have gone it, but it's the sort of thing you do when you're pissed.
Anyway, it was a terrible decision all round. The game attracted a laughable 710 crowd - of which a good 200-250 must have travelled from France.
I'd not long re-found employment around this time and had been getting up at 2:30AM to walk in for work, so with work the following morning I was only able to get there and back with a lift from my good friend Reg, who has ferried me around all season and has been excellent to me. The lack of alcohol before or after this occasion meant it was already going to be a dire occasion.
I had a bad feeling prior to this game. Well, I always do before every game being the total pessimistic cunt that I am, but this time my gut instinct was right. Even more so when it became evident that Mitch Walker was out with injury and Lee Hook had to replace him, while Shane Huke's recent broken foot meant that Steve Watt had to deputize for him, which the latter then churned out one of the worst individual performances I have seen while supporting this prestigious club.
We didn't actually start off too badly, enjoying most of the early dominance. Modeste was guilty of missing a one-on-one while Bricknell, who was in excellent form prior to this, squandered a few half chances. But then we started to lose grip on the game every time Watt got near the ball, punting aimless hoofs onto the heads of Schulz and Elphwick, two absolutely donkeys who will deal with anything aerial all day long, but are hopeless when you run at them.
The main fun of Tonbridge attacking our end was getting to take piss out of George Purcell every time they had a set-piece. He eventually resorted to flicking a wanker sign towards us, after we constantly goaded his high pitch voice inbetweeners style with "football fwend" and "I wanna pway up fwont I'm weally good". Then chants of "you're just a shit washing powder" started doing the rounds.
Unfortunately though, they soon went ahead. Hook's lack of height meant we failed to deal with a corner and one of their lads tapped away the rebound. I think it was that cunt Sonny Miles as he celebrated by shushing us, which is fair enough as footballers should be allowed to give it back.
Purcell, who scored about 3 league goals for Tonbridge until they released him in the latter stage of the season, was always going to score their second goal. The manner of it was absolutely tragic. Watt got hopelessly outpaced from nearby the halfway line and he managed to coolly slot past Hook.
Tonbridge could have scored a few more goals in this 25 minute period after half-time. But then Muggeridge (I think) got dismissed for them with a second yellow card for time-wasting, and we began to apply a late onslaught of pressure. We eventually found the net late on when May scored a rebound from Thomson's long range drive, but we unable to find a late dramatic goal this time despite a few nearly moments.
And that was it. Fucking horrendous. One thing I'll hand to Tonbridge is, they usually do provide a good atmosphere and make the game feel like a big (in relative terms for this division) occasion. But they were flat until they scored their second goal and even when they did sing you couldn't hear them. The most tragic thing though was when we left the ground having sung and clapped our team off for a good few minutes, they began to sing "we can see you sneaking out". Errrr, yeah the game has finished. Isn't that the point you fucking thick morons? Obviously as we had triumphed in 5/6 last meetings with them (drawing the other) their tiny fanbase seemed to really enjoy this one, and fair play to them.
Later this evening I had a bit of a family gathering at my untie's house with plenty of other relatives over. I mean, I'm a bit shy and retiring at these sort of things anyway but my mood here was just at a different level. I was even unable to sport a fake smile or pretend that I was enjoying my life, like you often have to do with relatives you don't often see.
EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that avoiding defeat in this game would have meant we would have gone the whole year of 2012 undefeated away from home in the league. Luckily we had already surpassed the year mark from our last previous defeat at Dartford back on 03/12/2011. Even more cause for misery.
DAFC 0-1 Tonbridge Angels
This New Year's Day return fixture was meant to be an occasion where we punished them for wasting our time and having the gall to beat us on Boxing Day, particular as they had got smashed for 3 goals at home inbetween this fixture at the hands of Bromley. Instead a humiliating double was completed, with Tonbridge scoring the game's solitary goal in injury time.
Even in spite of having the benefit of public transport and a normal 3PM kick off, they managed to complete outdo their usual tinpottedness by bringing a whopping 62 fans into the away end. This was astoundingly bad even by their standards, which quite amusingly, Jim Parmenter was alleged to have overheard saying to somebody "we've fucking segregated for 30 of them?!".
Fortunately for them though, games are not won by how many go through the turnstiles, as a rare decentish 1100 went through the home ends.
On reflection though, this is a game in which although I have no complaints with the result, we were severely unlucky to not get anything out of the game. In the first half we could have a good 4 or 5 goals, with so many near misses and good saves being drawn out of Worgan, mainly from set-pieces. Then just after half-time Moses Ademola managed to miss a one-on-one after going round Worgan, as everything just seemed to go against us. Attacking a near-empty away end in the 2nd half was probably a bad idea.
It was a poor tactical substitution by Forster which cost us the game though, in very similar vein to that trophy exit against Chelmsford. Willock came on in place of Cogan, in what might seem like an attacking subsitution, but instead it just meant out midfield was completely flooded and the tide began to completely with Tonbridge getting on top for the final 20 minutes. This accumulated in an inevitable final minute winner, courtesy of the excellent Ijara finishing up on a loose ball.
I'm not sure if the sight of 60 people in the away end cheering made the situation more comforting or more tragic. In a local derby like that you expect hundreds going fucking mental at you and rubbing it in. I'm not sure if I'd have preferred that or not, but either way, it was pretty soul-destroying.
McMahon still had time to hit the crossbar with a free-kick but even with our ill-luck, we could have no argument over the result, which IMO was all down to Forster.
EDIT: Ultimately, these 6 points we handed to Tonbridge were just enough to keep them from surviving. But in hindsight it was probably a good thing that it did happen otherwise we could still be lumbered with Forster.
DAFC 0-1 Staines Town
This is where we were foolishly expecting a White Cliff's BACKLASH against a side whom were struggling so bad, they managed to ship in 6 goals at home to Maidenhead the previous week without replying.
But like so many game at Crabble last season, this was yet another terrible drab affair of nothingness. Staines's highly rated David Wheeler conjured up the only piece of class in the game when we beat Walker from 20 yards with a well-struck half-volley.
I know most of last season's home games merge into one massive ball of forgetful miserable shite but from what I remember, we never really looked particularly close to rescuing a result of some kind.
The worst thing about this game though, is that the next two somehow contrived to be even worse.
Farnborough 5-2 DAFC
This was genuinely one of the most funniest/hilarious defensive horror shows you could possibly envisage, even by non-league standards. The entire back five, including a 17 year old loanee from Gillingham who joined the previous evening, who was so unforgettable I've already forgotten his name as this was his only 45 minutes of football for the club, were so unbelievably bad that we were actually fortunate to only concede 5 before the half-time break.
By the time the 4th and 5th were going in, myself and others were genuinely a mixture of completely raged at what we were witnessing, but also couldn't help but try and laugh a bit at the predicament we were in. We were absolutely horrendous and seemed to get punished nearly every single time they went forward.
As we slipped off the bar at half-time 5 minutes before the interval, we were genuinely in fear that we could be witnessing one of the heaviest defeats in Dover's history if we continued off in the same vein as the first half.
But thankfully, we somehow made the scoreline a bit more respectful and prevented conceding any more goals, even though we were still all over the place.
Bricknell reduced the deficit with two smart finishes and we did make a fist of it. But unfortunately that just wasn't good enough. With the team under pressure after the previous three defeats, this disgraceful response really spoke volumes about Forster's capabilities.
One thing I did love about this game though was our fans, we remained singing throughout the game with a lot of self-mocking. You need to show humour when you're witnessing shite like this.
Dorchester Town 1-0 DAFC
And finally, the game that sealed Forster's fate. Despite the narrow margin loss, this was arguably the worst defeat out of the losing streak, as none of the players ever really gave the proper response needed to their manager when he was under severe pressure.
This was one of our longest away trips and we had to do it on a Tuesday night, thanks to the Dorset club's exploits in the FA Cup, which accumulated in a first round win over my beloved Plymouth Argyle. And for the 40 or so of us that made the journey down there, we would have to witness a toothless performances in which we mustered up one weak deflected shot on target in the whole 90 minutes. Dorchester didn't really look that much cop either - but at no point did they ever look in danger of throwing the points away after their 1st half goal.
The final straw and patience with broke for most of us that travelled down on that evening with Forster getting turned on publicly for the 1st time. Danny Webb stupidly got himself sent off in the 2nd half with a needless yellow. So with us chasing the game, Nicky decides to take off one of our most creative attacking threats in Modeste, to bring on an extra defender in Steven Watt, in what was a blatant attempt to contain a 1-0 loss from becoming any worse than it was. Oh well, at least he achieved that. This was met with a verse of "you don't know what your doing", many of us utterly fucked off at this admission of defeat when we'd spent 360 odd miles on the road watching us slump to yet another gutless defeat.
Cue, much to my surprise, Forster being placed on gardening leave about 3 days later. This was, 100% the correct decision in my opinion. The only outweighing negative is the fact we stupidly put him on contract until 2014 which means his sacking has huge financial repercussions. But over the course of his time with us he never, ever looked like developing into a decent manager, after all the false dawns what with the away form. But 9 defeats in 21 games, early cup and trophy exits, terrible home form, amazing away form ending abruptly, shocking tactical naiveity and a terrible return on league position and points considering the amount of playing budget he was allowed, meant that from a footballing perspective his sacking was the completely correct call to make. As was replacing him with Chris Kinnear - who took us to the play-off final, finished 3rd with 76 points and only suffered 1 league defeat in the remaining 17 fixtures from where he took over. We may have still somehow been 3rd at the time of NF's sacking - only due to having played more games than those below us - but at the time of his dismissal our points-per-game average would have seen us end on 67 points - falling short of reaching a play-off spot. I know football isn't played on averages - but at the end of this game I really honestly could not see where our next point(s) would come from with the way we were playing.
DAFC 3-2 Truro City
We had to wait nearly 3 weeks for Chris Kinnear's much anticipated return to the managerial hotseat, nearly 18 years after his 10 year spell at the club came to an end. This was thanks to really fucking awful weather postponing games left right and centre, like it had done all season.
But the wait was worth it as we returned to winning ways at Crabble with a victory over the basement basket-case boys from Cornwall. Three first half goals did the trick. Kinnear's first signing became one of the quickest debutant Dover scorers in history, rising home to score a header from a corner. Then we added a second through Ian Simpemba after their calamitous goalkeeper (who has apparently been plucked from a county league club and they had only met him for the first time on the day through picking him up from a service station!) was involved in a mix-up. 2-0, 2 goals from centre-halves, this was already the hallmark of a Chris Kinnear side.
Then Calum Willock turned in from close-range just before half-time and it was a cushion that we'd need, because soon after the break we'd concede two soft goals in quick succession and looked in danger of slipping to yet another treacherous defeat. But thankfully we held on for that desperately needed 3 points.
The only downside to the day was a piss poor attendance of 800 odd, a very disappointing figure considering the appointment of Kinnear had revived a lot of interest from the old nostalgics.
DAFC 3-2 Welling United
And a week later we would win by the same scoreline at Crabble, this time against a side from the complete opposite side of the spectrum. Welling, who were on a 13 match winning streak prior to this fixture, were put to sword in a pulsating, end-to-end, real ding-dong affair in what was undoubtedly the best game experienced on home territory since the Aldershot game in the FA Cup run of 2010.
For once, and what is sadly a rare thing these days, we actually managed a four figure crowd for the occasion (just about!) and both sets of supporters contributed to an unsually decent atmosphere in what was a rare decent advert for non-league football.
Welling took the lead in this early on and what a belter it was from Joe Healy, crashing in a fierce drive from 25 yards. Amazingly though we responded within a couple of minutes, Ben May bustling through the box and firing a low shot past Mott.
They took control for the rest of the first half though and went ahead in fairly fortuitous circumstances - Lee Clarke's shot taking a huge deflection off of Harrington to loop into the corner.
So things didn't look particularly rosy going into the interval - especially when May picked up a knock and had to be replaced by Willock. I remember jokily remarking to Steven King at half-time after we were bemoaning the substituion, that he would score a last minute equaliser with a bicycle kick.
And ten minutes later, quite astonishingly, Willock did score an overhead kick. It was one of the most incredible display's of athletism I have ever seen. Especially from somebody as
After looking outclassed for long periods of the first half we really began to take control in the 2nd, with Welling still looking like a threat on the counter attack.
But just as I was desperately hoping we'd hold out for a point, we went one better with four minutes to go. Willock broke free on the counter and skipped past a defender as he raced into the box. Goalkeeper Mott came right out of position so Willock teed up Bricknell with a perfectly weighted cross - which he gratefully accepted to nod in at a near empty goal, which beat the covering defender. Cue scenes at the River End I haven't seen in a long while. Bodies flying, fists in the air, hugs being traded, shirts coming off, you name it. Sheer pandemonium and what a supreme moment it was after all the dire shit we had witnessed at Crabble over the previous 24 months.
The frantic finale hadn't ended though, a Welling attacker broke free on goal with seconds left on the clock but Sterling steamed out of no-man's land to put in one of the best sliding last ditch tackles I have seen in a long while.
Cue the relief at the final whistle, and a buzz left lingering with me that I hadn't felt from a home game in such a long time. The game was a true reminder of why I love football.
Weston-Super-Mare 0-3 Dover Athletic
Weston provided our first and only weekender of the season, this time we actually opted to stay in the grotty seaside town rather than enjoy the delights of Bristol nearby. And even in spite of some areas being so run-down it made Margate look picturesque, it was a splendid weekend.
The football itself was a really comfortable win against a side who somehow managed to sustain a play-off push up until the final week of the season, even in spite of having one of the smallest budgets in the division. 2 goals from Ricky Modeste (whom I proclaimed before the game has absolutely no end product) and a header from Ian Simpemba secured the three points. Simpemba's header being the most hilarious goal of the season - barely making any contact from the floating free kick yet somehow David Lloyd in goal let this pea-roller slip through his fingers.
T'was a really strangely quite subdued atmosphere at the game though. Weston is pretty much the Borehamwood of the West Country. Aside from an excellent terrace behind one goal, it's an awful basic ground and there's barely 200 people there. Most of us staying down there were pretty hungover from the prior night's antics as well.
The only real downside to this trip was contracting a nasty bout of diarrhoea on the 6.5 hour train journey home - thanks to a really dodgy kebab I'd consumed the night before.
Boreham Wood 1-1 DAFC
Ah, Boring Wood away. The most unenviable fixture on the whole of the footballing calender.
Thanks to Reginald ferrying me over from work, I was able to participate in the pre-match St Albans drink-a-thon, in which a decentish train army turnout seemed to be intent on getting so twatted that they would be forgetting where we'd end up.
Not me though, as soon as you set foot inside Meadow Park you manage to completely sober up at the experience. At least this time we didn't lose though. Barry Cogan's first half opener from Ademola's inviting cross was cancelled out predictably quickly after Harrington got turned to easily in the box. The rest of the game mainly involved getting wound up at their thug 6"4 centre back O'Glaughin, who loves elbowing, kicking and shoving people off the ball but when anyone goes near him he falls down like a sack of bricks. Later on his play-acting earned Simpemba a red card and a 5 match suspension.
This was a decent point earned at a club with a very strong defensive home record nonetheless.
For some reason we continued to get stupidly drunk in their bar afterwards - which was so tinpot that they run out of draught beer (at a ground with barely 200 people ffs!) that they were charging full-price from beer cans. We were jumping around going mental and singing loads of songs for some reason, just trying to make light of where we were and have a bit of a fun. I think they eventually called the police on us for some reason.
The train journey home was good fun, with everyone acting like fucking idiots in front of the great general public. A few of our people got absolutely drenched head-to-toe in beer.
DAFC 2-0 Bath City
Our newly found winning habit at Crabble continued with a win over the bumpkins, which was a fairly straight-forward win even in spite of never really getting out of 2nd gear. As usual, it was Ben May who broke the deadlock in the first half by diverting in from a free-kick. The match sealer in the second half was also from a set-piece, this time Bath's Gethin Jones slicing in a beautiful, comical volley from a Harrington corner into his own net.
This was our third home win in a row - something Kinnear achieved immediately which Forster's couldn't in a whole 15 months.
Maidenhead United 1-2 DAFC
It's always a huge pain in the anus that we always seem to have one of my favourite away days in this division on a Tuesday evening. Those Dover 'fans' who opted to watch their beloved Man United crash out of the Champions' League (as is the norm with Slur Alex - who has never properly managed to dominate Europe for a long period of time), missed out on yet another triumph in Berkshire on this freezing Tuesday night.
May once again put us ahead, converting from close range after Tom Wynter's enticing cross. Then Bazza Cogan got the vital 2nd 20 minutes from time when his long range shot was poorly dealt with by their goalkeeper.
They scored with a free header to set up a nervy final finale but we held on, and should have had a third had Willock's clever near post flick not been wrongly ruled offside.
DAFC 2-2 Havant & Waterlooville
It really looked like yet another home win was on the cards when we took a 2-0 margin into half-time, thanks to Tyrone Sterling's header and Bazza Cogan's long-range free kick completely evading everyone.
But unfortunately we took our foot off the gas and allowed them a share of the points with two quick-fire goals mid-way through the 2nd, so dropped points here all but essentially killed off our very faint total hopes for me.
Salisbury City A-A DAFC
Another wasted 300+ mile round trip this one, thanks to the hideously shit British weather fucking up yet another fixture this season, and a bottling coward referee who wasn't prepared to attempt to kick-off the 2nd half after a torrential downpour in the 1st, which was a fairly even, non-descript half.
I was absolutely gutted about this. I finally had a rare Saturday morning off of work and had organized a privately hired mini-bus full of pissheads to enjoy this one with, so I was really looking forward to this 2nd v 3rd place clash. Unfortunately though, the pussy inconsiderate referee, who had already pocketed his earnings, didn't fancy it so it was a fucking shit day overall, even in spite of Chris Hunt's legendary chat-up line he used "I'm going to make you my next victim".
DAFC 1-0 Bromley
A freezing cold Tuesday night borefest which was lit up by a
Bromley also had to play their final 10 minutes with an outfield player in goal after their goalkeeper got his marching orders for bringing down Ademola through on goal, but we failed to build on the advantage.
DAFC 1-0 AFC Hornchurch
A week later we also won by a singular goal, which was witnessed by an appalling crowd of 483, undoubtedly severely hampered by people opting to spend their Tuesday evening watching England bottled it away at Montenegro instead.
Their loss though, they'd have to sit out and miss out on Ben May's dramatic 92nd minute deflected winner, which was quite an amazing moment after we had played quite poorly all evening. It was a case of May redeeming himself after missing a first half penalty, which he weakly side-footed straight at their goalkeeper, instead his usual successful 6/6 prior to this game method of closing his eyes and smashing it somewhere at the goal.
Fortunately though, it wasn't even the worst penalty of the game. Hornchurch were awarded one in the 2nd half but somehow managed to put it nearer to the advertising boards by the corner flag rather than anywhere near the goal.
May's winner was a fucking sweet moment, the moment it slowly trickled over the line made the previous 90 dire minutes we'd witnessed all the more bearable Can't beat a jammy winner like that.
DAFC 1-1 Sutton United
This Easter Saturday fixture drew another four figure crowd but unfortunately most of those would go home disappointed. This was a very poor game until it broke into life midway into the second, when a Sutton player was quite harshly sent-off for lunging in with what was deemed a dangerous tackle. We looked like making the man advantage count when Ben May yet again got his name on a scoresheet by turning in from close range. New signing Harry Ottaway should have wrapped things up against his former employers but missed a one-on-one, which would turn out to be a costly miss. With the time just ticked into added time, Sutton's Chris Benjamin let rip from 20 yards and his left footed shot flew into the top corner, meaning this would become yet another Crabble disappointment.
Amazingly though there was still time for drama at both ends. Firstly Sutton then scored a 2nd goal, which was proven to be wrongly ruled offside by the camera replays. Then Ademola had an absolutely glorious chance with the last kick off the game but somehow managed to curl his effort wide, meaning his run of not scoring since joining us in November would continue.
A huge disappointment to throw away late points again, but still a good day on the piss nonetheless, capped off by singing karaoke in the Old Endeavour with Sutton's notorious pissheads.
Chelmsford City 0-3 DAFC
Next up was an Easter Monday trip to our old foes from Essex with just 4 points separating us and them from 3rd and 4th position prior to the game. In most of the build up to the game former Clarets striker Billy Bricknell had spent most of the week trolling their fans on twitter, leaving them enraged and frothing behind their keyboards.
Instead of the battering they were promise to deliver him, we ended up tearing them apart with a beautiful flurry of goals, ensuring that a 7 point gap would be the difference between both clubs by the end of the day. First half goals from Modeste (direct from a corner, hopelessly non-dealt with by Searle who would respond to our bantz with "I'm better than this. You know I am. Honestly") and May (a beautiful glancing header from Modeste's superb delivery) and a 2nd half goal from Danny Webb making a rare appearance meant that for once we'd get the bragging rights over them. This victory was made all the more sweeter by Walker saving from Slabber's first half penalty.
A cracking, joyous occasion that was washed down with several pint of ale from the continental beer house near their station.
DAFC 0-5 Basingstoke Town
What followed next would be quite an astonishing and extraordinary occasion, albeit not for the right reasons. Instead I would witness my heaviest ever Dover defeat (this is the first time we've lost by more than 4 goals since I've been supporting in 2003) to opposition whom spent the entire campaign in the bottom half and in the drop zone.
2 of their goals came fairly early in the first half. One came through the fault of Simpemba being hopelessly outpaced in his first appearance since serving a 5 match ban.
It was completely baffling just watching on in the 2nd half as we were torn apart by the pace of Delano Sam-Yorke, who was having a field day although undoubtedly aided by our terrible defending and goalkeeping.
This was such a strange match where even now I'm still struggling to rationalise how this one came about. Shocking.
Salisbury City 1-1 DAFC
A Tuesday night jaunt to Salisbury should have been a beautiful one. A day off work, a train journey down and few beers in the city centre with my two favourite gingers, before sneakily taking a 1-0 smash and grab home with us. Instead we'd just have to settle for one point in this battle for 2nd place, thanks to Salisbury equalizing in the 96th minute, when only 4 minutes of added time were awarded. Not that I'm sour about letting leads slip away at the 1st and 2nd placed clubs with the last kick of the game.
In truth though, Tyrone Sterling's goal in the 1st half was pretty much the only real threat we offered all evening. We spent most of the 2nd half under the cosh and withstanding their pressure with a mixture of luck and excellent defending. Unfortunately we faltered when we took our eyes off the ball when rightly expecting the refeering to blow up for full-time.
A massive fucking kick to the balls this was, absolutely gutting. But at the same time, it was a very decent and credible response to the horror show we'd just witnessed on Saturday.
Havant & Waterlooville A-A DAFC
Yet another abandoned game and yet again it was at another one of our longer distance games. This time though this would be more beneficial for us, at the time of the referee spinelessly bottling it, despite the pitch being no less horrendous than it was in the 1st half, we were 2 men down (compared to their 1) and also losing 1-0 to Olly Palmer's goal. It was a late lunge from Steven Thomson that got him his marching orders, and bizarrely Lloyd Harrington also for being singled out in the ensuing melee. After making a controversial big call, he no longer fancied it and went home with his wages picked up.
Was fairly annoyed at this and the consistent theme of spineless officials with no regard for supporters, even in spite of it allowing us a 2nd bite of the cherry at a game we seemed destined to lose.
Havant & Waterlooville 1-1 DAFC
We travelled straight back down their on the Tuesday night, a very warm pleasant day in which several cans of guinness were consumed in what would hopefully be a game we'd seal a play-off spot with three points. We'd just have to settle for one though. We took the leader when McMahon picked out Ottaway for his first goal for the club, who diverted his cross with a smart header, before unfortunately going off with an injury.
We sat back after the strong start though and they equalized before half-time - a free-header from a free-kick much in the same vein as they had scored on Saturday. Very disappointing but it had been coming.
Bricknell scored a rebound early in the 2nd half, which highlights proved it was wrongly ruled out offside, even though I agreed with the decision at the time. We were unable to find a winner but overall this was a good point - Havant barely lost many games in 2013 and we were unfortunate to play them twice at a time where they had improved significantly.
DAFC 0-0 Dorchester Town
And back to a complete revert of home day boredom - as we witnessed a goalless draw completely devoid of any excitement in a game we were desperately hoping to finally seal our play-off spot - which we could have achieved in the previous two games.
Don't get me wrong, Dorchester, despite their limited resources, are a good side who managed another very credible top-half finish last finish. But we offered them so little problems to deal with and this was another game that showed that although results have improved there since Kinnear's appointment, performances at Crabble rarely have and there is still a long way to go before making our home back into the fortress it once was.
I honestly can't remember any real goalmouth action at either ends of the pitch despite this match being fairly recent.
Staines Town 0-2 DAFC
In our penultimate game, a midweek trip to Ryman League side Staines, we finally clinched that elusive play-off spot with our first victory in 5, thanks to 2nd half goals from Ben May and Steven Thomson. With an extremely in-form Sutton threatening to break the top 5 monopoly, this result came as a huge relief and meant we could go to Bromley on the final day just enjoying a jolly piss-up rather than having to worry.
Although the amount of midweek games has been a massive nuisance, I have enjoyed some of these evening trips away. This was another I met early doors with London based fans and enjoyed some pints in the evening sunshine before the game.
Harry Ottoway's excellent wing-play before setting up May on a plate for his 20th of the season while Thomson completed the job late on by poking in from close range, meant that I could go home very pissed and very happy.
Bromley 0-4 DAFC
And we signed off the end of the 42 game season in style by thumping Bromley at Hayes Lane, in what was hugely enjoyable end of season piss-up with several Dover twats descending on South London in fancy dress.
On the field = carnage. An excellent passing move in the first half accumulated in Harry Ottaway nodding in at the far post from a McMahon cross. Then Ademola decided to break his goalscoring duck for the club on the final day. How did he decide to do it? Only by curling in a beautiful 25 yarder into the top corner. McMahon made it 3 with a low mis-hit free-kick, managing to evade everyone, before Bricknell put the cherry on top by putting away a loose ball from a set piece.
Off the field = carnage. Drinking on the terraces with stewards turning a blind eye, blazing sunshine, beer going down like water, splendid times aplenty.
Downside to the day? The much wanted semi-final tie against Chelmsford would not come to fruition, with their inability to beat Farnborough (who had to play the final 5 games without a registered goalkeeper on their books). Instead we'd have an awkward midweek trip to Eastleigh's god forsaken shithole ground, after their storming end to the season meaning their expensively assembled squad would be a very tough task in our way.
Eastleigh 1-3 DAFC (PO Semi)
After two seasons without having to suffer them, I really had forgotten just how horrific being involved in the play-offs can be - how nerve wracking and stressful the build up to the games are. For this one I was absolutely bricking it on the morning of the game. In an unsuccessful attempt to just try ease my nerves a bit I consumed several pints of Southern Comfort and coke at home before getting the coach to Hampshire.
The horrible nervy feeling before such a massive is just a feeling so hard to explain.
Thankfully though our team were less struck by the occasion, doing their best to ensure that those of us standing on their flat open pavement behind the goal - a venue totally not befitting of conference premier football - would be a bit less panicky.
It took us a whole of 20 seconds to go a goal ahead. Ex-Dover goalkeeper Ross Flitney still clearly has the club's best interests at heart. He came out of nowhere to try and thwart Ademola but he managed to nip in and slide the ball underneath him, thus leaving us bewildered yet ecstatic and the sheer speed of events happening.
There was not so much he could do about our second though, when Ben May decided to pull off something that none of us knew he had in his locker. He chested the ball with his back to goal from about 25 yards out, before hitting a looping volley on the turn which just managed to leap inside the inside post. It was a goal that the video highlights really didn't do justice for. Amazing strike.
We held that 2 goal lead going into half time, and it could have been three after Flitney mis-hit a clearance well out of goal position. But our long range attempt at the empty goal just eluded the post by a few inches.
2 nil up at half time in a play-off semi. You can't complain at that, but me being the pessimist that I am, knew that we were only a quarter of the way through and we had a big 45 minutes ahead of us.
And boy, did we have to withstand some bombardment. Eastleigh really took into to us in the 2nd half and reduced the deficit midway through it, a close range rebound from Zebroski after an aerial boy was failed to be dealt with. And that really did crank the nerves up.
Not that we didn't have chances of our own though - Simpemba hit the crossbar with a shot so fierce it always snapped it.
But just as we looked like we'd do really well to escape Hampshire with a lead going into the 2nd leg, one of their defenders stupidly lost his head and charged into Modeste and slapping him to the floor. A blatant stonewall red-card that made our task a bit more easier and less tense.
With the game entering injury time, McMahon decided to take a theatrical tumble on the outer edge of the area. He then stood up to take it himself. With the voice of encouragement defeaning behind the goal, his lowly struck in-swinger managed to evade everybody and find the back of the net.
Cue SCENES behind the goal like you wouldn't believe it. Bodies, fists, sweat, relief and tears flying about aplenty, as the sheer relief of such an important goal was a moment like you could only imagine in a situation like that.
The evening was capped off by another one of their players getting sent off for a 2nd yellow, meaning our chances of progression to the final were extremely promising.
At the time this was such an unbelievable night, one of those games that provoke so much emotion both good and bad out of you.
DAFC 0-2 Eastleigh (PO Semi)
I'd remained relatively cool in the days leading up to the return leg. Not because I believed making the final was a formality, just that I fully well knew that we were capable of seeing a professional job out on this one and I had my full faith and confidence that we'd manage it.
Instead, this turned out to be the most least enjoyable and horrible 90+ minutes of football I have ever witnessed. We just completely froze on most of the occasion. We looked nervy all the way throughout.
It was former Dover headless chicken Glen Southam that pulled the strings throughout the game for Eastleigh. His long range free-kick early in the second half was another one that managed to evade everybody, Mitchell Walker really not doing enough to prevent it from happening.
We'd sit out the remainder of the first half playing really deep and inviting Eastleigh on to attack us. We did almost nick an equaliser near the end, but Bricknell couldn't get his header on target after Ottaway looped a high hopeful ball into the box.
Instead we'd get punished for the dangerous game we were playing. Walker tried coming out for a ball he had absolutely no chance of getting, missed it completely and Damian Scannell scored into the empty net from a tight angle to take the game into extra time.
At this point I stormed into the centre spot, absolutely fuming with Walker and fucking gutted at the same time. Being the shit fan I am, I gave up on the team, couldn't bare to watch the inevitable extra time loss and was 100% genuinely convinced we'd lose the game. I only popped out the door on a few occasions in extra time to have a look at what was going on outside, I had completely given up. Couldn't handle any more of it.
But we somehow made it through both periods of extra time unscathed. I couldn't resist emerging from the bar for the penalty shootout.
If you've never seen your team in a penalty shootout in an important game then you're missing out on the most intense thing you could possibly witness as a supporter. The sheer dread you feel when both your players and theirs step up is something to behold.
Thankfully though, our players had the nerves of steel to step up to the occasion in front of the River End.
Willock tucked away the first one. His Balotelli-esque approach of scoring them means that he was never going to miss. Southam replied by powering in the return one, a real captain's performance from him. Bricknell then stood up, side footing his one into the bottom right corner. But Eastleigh responded by toe-punting theirs down the middle. Then the most worrying moment of the shootout came when Michael Kamara stood up, a gangly defender who is uncompromising on the ball. Yet he fantastically dispatched his into the top right corner to make our fears unfounded. Then the real turning point came. Walker went from hero to villain, by diving down the correct way to save their third. McMahon confidently dispatched his one into the right corner meaning that we only had to save Eastleigh's fourth to progress through. And with voice levels rising high from behind the goal, Walker excellently dived down the right way to put us into the play-off final.
What a feeling of relief that was although I did feel sorry for Eastleigh's small fanbase, we were extremely fortunate to get through that tie.
I felt extremely bad for giving up on the team but I can't sit through and witness something like that again. I'll have a heart attack.
This set up a third visit to Salisbury inside a couple of months, after they saw off Chelmsford with a last minute winner. It's certainly not an ideal place to get to on a Sunday, but I was feeling so fortunate to be there not just after feeling we had got luck v Eastleigh, but it was a position I really couldn't have envisaged us being anywhere near at the end of that Dorchester game.
Salisbury City 3-2 DAFC (PO Final)
And so the season ended with it's customary play-off heartache, unfortunately leaving it to the final this time to falter. The goals that Salisbury won the game with though were worth of winning any game. First of all they opened the scoring with a beautifully struck free-kick just after HT. A terrific curling effort that had Walker well beaten. It shouldn't have been awarded as a FK in the first place, but you can't dwell on things like that. Their 2nd, at our end in extra time was a real beauty. A finely worked move that drew Walker well out of position, which their player coolly clipped over the head of Walker and into the goal. Their 3rd, which came in the 2nd half of ET, was a cracking half-volley from outside the box which looped over Walker, scored by the league's best striker Jamie White. That meant that Bricknell's goal a few minutes later was redundant and irrelevant.
Although the moment amounted to nothing, Simpemba's injury time equaliser in normal time was a real fucking amazing moment for the few minutes it meant something. We'd never really looked getting back into it, especially after one of their lads dived to get McMahon sent off with us chasing the game. But with time fastly ticking, Harrington sent in a powerfully struck free kick into the box which Simpemba diverted goal-bound with his noggin. Cue the fairly mild scenes you'd expect of a goal of that importance. The aftermath chant of "you're not singing any more" with everybody directing towards the gobby goading twats in the main stand, was as loud as I've ever heard. For a moment it was like we actually had a roof over our heads.
But for myself and I suspect for a lot the other 817 souls in the away end, we knew that the chances of us holding out in extra time were very slim and this would just be prolonging the inevitability.
In truth Salisbury were the better side than us on the day and the better side over the course of the season. Bar a few spells of pressure we never really rose to the occasion.
I've been desperate for so long now to see us play in a national league and actually competing against some proper clubs. So it was surprising that this defeat didn't really hit me as much as it should have done. I just felt that a more worthy side got promoted in our place and I never expected to have even got this far only 4 months before hand. It made the disappointment a lot easier to swallow by trying to get a bit of perspective about the situation. We know have a proper football manager in place, a club legend who I feel confident in his hands long term. The club can take this set-back and continue to move forward. When you look back on the season - in amongst the hord of shite we have suffered - particularly at Crabble - there have been some excellent times throughout the season that have made this lifestyle one worth living (at times). You have to try not and dwell on things too much - it is only a game after all - sorry Bill Shankly.
All things considered, it was actually a decent day out. Good train journey up, several pints of real ale with my Dad and Uncle in their excellent city centre, taking over the Plough pub with Dover fans and best of all, one of my friend's (who is a loose cannon) knocking out one of their local chavs with one of the sweetest hits I have ever seen. There were loads of them goading, swearing and insulting every Dover fan walking or driving past them. Thankfully, he's demented enough to react with violence and teach one of them a lesson. It was a pleasure to witness.
The obvious downside was the ground - their horrible uncovered away end meant it was always going to be difficult to create a decent atmosphere.
And there we have it. That concludes what was a rollercoaster ride of a season and a shit, long-winding blog ridden with cliches and the usual shit anecdotes. I won't bother going into the current on-goings of this post season as that is something to do at later date, and quite frankly I am bored shitless of writing. I hope you've enjoyed the recap of the highs and lows of the season just gone.
I will leave on a final general Q&A of the season.
1) Best Dover player - For me, it was undoubtedly Benjamin May. Yes, Rance was generally excellent in the combative midfielder role and allowing the more creative players like McMahon and Cogan to excel. But Ben was so good in the goalscoring targetman role, scoring way more goals than I could ever have expected, and was consistent throughout the whole season. Sterling would easily be in contention if he'd been here for a longer period of time. An absolute class act - one of the best centre back's we've had in years.
As a bitter pill as it is to swallow, you can't pretend anything other than be disappointed that these three won't be playing in our side next season.
2) Worst Dover player - Steven Watt. I was hoping of big things from him after a long injury lay-off, but he was completely off the pace and a liability in most of the games he played in. It's sad to see a player drop down so low through being riddled with injuries, but this club isn't a charity and he was nowhere near good enough since his return.
3) Best game - In terms of match quality, it has to be the 3-2 win over Welling, which has already been detailed in depth above. Saying that though, the Eastleigh away play-off semi was a real quality match from a neutral (and Dover!) perspective.
But as for a personal favourite - undoubtedly that December Tuesday night in Cornwall. A memory that will live forever.
4) Worst game - So many to choose from - considering we were just a few dodgy decisions away from getting promoted, there have been more than there should have been!
I think in terms of general shitness though, that display at Dorchester was just so toothless. At least in the defensive horror show at Farnborough there was a bit of humour about it - and we attempted to respond in the 2nd half.
5) Best away ground - Dorchester only need to widen their turnstiles and put a roof over the end of one of the goals and they'd have the best in the league. I do like Maidenhead aswell, very traditional and you can drink on the terraces, always a bonus.
6) Worst away ground - Definitely Truro this time around, even in spite of it being such a legendary day. The only reasonable stand in the ground was not open due to safety issues, meaning we spent the whole 90 minutes getting soaked!
Eastleigh's too, is awful. How it's been passed fit for Conny Nashonal grading I don't know.
7) Best team to come to Crabble - As poor as we were, Basingstoke should take a lot of credit for ripping us to shreds in the way that they did. You have to concede that it was a one-off performance for them though when you see the league table. Salisbury were a very good side - so were Welling IMO despite that we should have had 6 points off of them.
8) Worst team to come to Crabble - Billericay at Crabble were laughable. I was worried that they'd be a strong direct side that were difficult to deal with - but their defenders are completely useless carthorses that are incapable of defending balls that aren't lumped in the air.
9) Best fans to come to Crabble - Away followings in this league are generally piss-poor - although in fairness, our away support was pretty shite too compared to recent years. Sutton brought a respectable number again so probably them by default. Could've been Chelmsford but we bloody had them on a midweek night again.
10) Worst fans to come to Crabble - Tonbridge bringing 60 fans for a New Year's Day heated derby was just fucking abysmal. That's not sour grapes - that's just fucking abysmal.
So them. At least I expect wank followings from other teams.
11) Best goal - Willock's and Harrington's were the most aeshetically pleasing, May's v Eastleigh and Ademola at Bromley on the final day weren't half-bad either. But I adored May's meaty bullet header's away at Chelmsford and Hayes respectively.
12) Funniest moment - Martyn McGarrigle accidently taking his Dad's passport to the airport instead of his own and only realising once we were about to board the flight.
Oh, silly me, that was our trip to Germany (which I ought to blog about) the weekend after Salisbury.
Lee Hook jumping from off the subs bench to join in with our fans conga around the Bromley ground was pretty damn funny.
13) Best Opposition player - Delano Sam Yorke was brilliant at Crabble. Hope he does well at Cambridge United. Joe Healy of Welling is a very good player, as are Jamie White and Chris McPhee of Salisbury.
14) Worst Opposition player - There have been some really terrible goalkeepers we have faced this season - the loanee one at Billericay and the Truro lad at Crabble being the pick of the bunch.
15) Rating this season out of 10 - 8: Ultimately another failure given the budget and resources at our disposal but as a fan there have been many excellent away trips, many fantastic footballing moments and we now have a manager we all treasure and can fully get behind, unlike that money haemorrhaging arrogant prick Nicholas Foster. For all the negatives, I've had a fantastic ride.
No comments:
Post a Comment