retired_embartl

congrats on the second promotion attjen - going well for you :thup: Think you may find it a bit tougher second time round

retired_swmchick2006

retired_swmchick2006

Summer and vacation. A tour of southern France. A trip to the Scottish highlands.

Sounds good. Shame I was too busy here in Dover trying to get everything sorted for the next season.

It also didn’t help that in mid-July I was interrupted during an important phone call about a potential young transfer by two plainclothes police who wished to talk to me. Apparently, they had heard a rumor about a manager holding his chairman in house arrest, and felt they needed to interview me. I took them down the hall to Nick French’s office where he was just starting a... um... ‘conversation’ with his secretary, and that seemed to convince the police that I had nothing to hide. Bizarre.

The four retirees, of which two were significant (Gary Stewart and Troussier), made trying to get some players for the backline and holding midfielder a vital endeavor. Not to mention trying to improve the squad in generally every position possible.

Perhaps, I worry too much. Two straight titles, two straight promotions, maybe this season will be just as easy?

No. I can’t count on that. My hate won’t let me.

First in was David Cameron, a veteran Scottish central defender. He may not get many starts, but his experience should be useful as a rotation player.

Just after that was the big signing (from my point of view) of the summer. Twenty-two year old right back, in the classic overlapping style, Stephen Graham. No slouch defensively, and excellent both with the ball at his feet and crossing. I have high expectations of him.

French Striker Ludovic Cornu was next to arrive. He is decent in the air, good finisher, and probably only just Division Two quality. I hope for one good season.

At the end of June was the biggest batch of signings, some of whom I’m hopeful about and others are strictly role players.

Mickael Garcia is another right-back, and an excellent defensive player. I hadn’t expected to sign him, but his abilities give me the hope of playing him in a central role instead. Will have to watch and see how he copes.

Central defender Tom Ferguson was brought in for depth only, as was left winger David Wilson. Both should see games, but won’t be regulars.

Forward Jimmy MacKay will likely go straight into the line-up, being a bit better option than the other choices at the club.

Defensive midfielder Nicholas Lefebvre was possibly a choice for starting in that role, but slightly better all around player Alan Stewart was signed just a few days after, and will probably be first choice.

The last signing before the season began was right midfielder Graham Gallagher. He is really going to be an experiment tactically. He has excellent positioning, and movement off the ball, but he is not a quality dribbler or crosser. I’m hoping that he can compliment Stephen Graham as between the two of them they have all the qualities the right side of the team could want.

All told it was roughly ½ a million pounds spent on incoming players.

A few players were promoted from our improved youth set-up, but they were promptly sent packing. (There was no quality to be seen in any of those English teens.) In the pre-season board meeting I wondered aloud whether we could go ahead and improve the training facilities a bit more (thinking that a few more French player’s might be willing to come to Dover). Again, much to my surprise, the board agreed.

Of course, with about 2.5 million on the TV deal for Division Two, and most players still happy with relatively cheap contracts, Dover isn’t really struggling for funds.

The expected first choice team is:
GK: Kenny Robertson
DL: Gregory Faivre
DC: Vincent Robin and Mickael Garcia
DR: Stephen Graham
DMC: Alan Stewart (or Ian Scott or Nicolas Levebvre)
ML: Guillaume Lambert
MR: Graham Gallager (with Arnaud Desse backing)
AMC: Vahirua
SC: Jimmy MacKay and Ludovic Cornu

Vahirua will probably break the Dover appearances record early this season.

retired_swmchick2006

Division Two. It’s… interesting.

You know, I’ve heard it said that the first game of the season will set the standard for the rest of the year. So, if you win big, a good league position can be expected at the end.

I’ve also heard it said that if you win big in the first game, your team is destined to peak early, and slide ignominiously down the table during the course of the season.

Hmm. I wonder which it will be for Dover?

In the first game of the year, home to Rotherham, it was clear that this team at least hadn’t bothered doing any scouting of our side either last season or in the meaningless preseason friendlies. Had they done so, they may not have let Vahirua have acres of space from the opening kick-off. He casually strolled around for a bit, then went directly on a long run right at goal and unleashed a wicked shot that went into the upper netting with just 2 minutes on the clock. Things then took an odd turn when he decided he had done enough for the day, shoved over Rotherham midfielder David Reid and received a straight red. Even with only 10 men, Dover still had the better of play, but the 2nd half was still quite unexpected. Robin nodded home from a corner, new signing Alan Stewart took a cheeky goal, and then to ice the game Stephen Graham buried a penalty after the Rotherham keeper had taken a player down in the box (and gotten rightly sent off) to seal a very impressive debut.

So we started as strong as we could hope, and had Tranmere for game 2. Kenny Robertson had his head in the clouds early on, and let in an early goal. Graham scored shortly after, however, and in the 2nd half Vahirua and Cornu (his first ever for the club) scored. The game ended 3-2 after Tranmere scored in the 85th.

Next was a League Cup game against Division One Birmingham. I frankly can’t be bothered with cup nonsense, and our 2nd choice squad did well enough to keep the game close and only lose 1-0. (Strangely a newspaper article by someone called Edgar Keating or something gave us praise for "brave English lads fighting valiantly against a higher division club". Hunh?)

Home to Norwich, and Jimmy MacKay got his first for Dover in the 1st half. It wasn’t a particularly good or interesting match until substitute David Wilson scored twice in the last 10 minutes to make the game 3-0 in our favor. (Wilson’s 2nd was an impressive full volley into the opposite corner. Very unexpected.)

The early rush of games had taken a bit of a toll on some of the players, so a partial first choice team was sent out to face Torquay. An okay performance, but no goals in a 0-0 draw.

Goals from Stewart, Cornu, and Lambert made easy work of Northampton. The only downside to the match was an injury to Stewart who had started the season in flying form.

Much to my surprise, it was immediately after this match that one of our scouts found 19-year-old Ian Thomson, who could have been made to order for Dover’s needs: A central defender and defensive midfielder, if he develops at all in the next few seasons, he will be one of Dover’s best players.

He immediately got some playing time in the next match against Hull after Mickael Garcia went out with another injury in this early part of the year. Despite Hull scoring first, easy goals from Robin (on another corner), Vahirua (on a lucky shot), and Cornu (on a rebound) made it 3-1.

It was MacKay, Cornu, andVahirua who got the goals in an easy and pointless 3-0 win over a terrible, completely miserable, even more dire than most of these English sides, Macclesfield side. If that squad manages to stay up this year, I’ll swear off wine for a month.

If the star to the season seems to perfect, it did come to end. It took two ridiculously good freekicks to do it, as 3rd place Brentford’s John O’Toole bent in one in the 9th minute and then the winner in the 86th to give us our first loss at 2-1. I might have been more upset if several of our key players weren’t rested for the game.

I don’t think I’ve been insulting you enough lately, I must be losing my touch you nincompoopish lumps of a scum-sucking rooster turds.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> ************************************************* English Second Division - Saturday 13th September***************************************** ********Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts-------------------------------------------------1st Dover 8 4 0 0 13 0 2 1 1 7 5 19 2nd Gillingham 8 4 0 0 11 3 2 1 1 14 9 19 -------------------------------------------------3rd Brentford 8 2 1 1 7 6 3 1 0 7 3 17 4th Northampton 8 3 1 0 9 3 1 2 1 7 7 15 5th Notts Co 7 3 0 0 5 2 2 0 2 9 8 15 6th Sheff Utd 8 2 1 1 4 1 2 1 1 8 5 14 -------------------------------------------------7th Burnley 8 2 1 1 6 4 2 0 2 6 6 13 ...20th Swindon 8 1 1 2 4 6 1 1 2 7 11 8 -------------------------------------------------21st Stoke 7 1 2 1 5 5 0 2 1 3 4 7 22nd Stockport 8 1 0 3 2 5 0 3 1 2 3 6 23rd Torquay 7 1 1 2 5 6 0 0 3 2 7 4 24th Macclesfield 8 1 1 2 7 8 0 0 4 0 9 4 Goalsos Player Club Apps Gls-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Jack Stimpson Gillingham 8 6 2nd Jimmy Burgess Norwich 8 6 3rd Kenny Stuart Hull 8 6 4th Andrew Douglas Sheff Utd 8 6 5th Jason Lunt Brentford 8 5 16th Ludovic Cornu Dover 8 4 Assistsos Player Club Apps Asts-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Grégory Faivre Dover 8 5 2nd Les Carter Oxford 8 4 3rd Marc Saunders Blackpool 8 4 4th Marcelo Rosales Notts Co 7 4 5th Eduardo Vasco Sheff Utd 8 4 23rd Guillaume Lambert Dover 8 3 Average Ratingos Player Club Apps Av R-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Willie Taylor Wycombe 3 (1) 8.50 2nd Matt Payne Darlington 3 (1) 8.50 3rd Matt Jones Northampton 5 8.40 4th Chris Parker Peterborough 8 8.25 5th Jack Stimpson Gillingham 8 8.25 10th Stephen Graham Dover 6 8.00 29th Vincent Robin Dover 8 7.63 Man of the Matchos Player Club Apps MoM-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Chris Parker Peterborough 8 3 2nd Darren Maddison Peterborough 6 (1) 3 3rd Daniel Davis Burnley 8 2 4th David Harris Swindon 8 2 5th Gary Fowler Northampton 8 2 9th Stephen Graham Dover 6 2 </pre>

retired_swmchick2006

Coming off the loss to Brentford, Dover had a home game to Peterborough. Though to actually call it a ‘game’ is being overly generous. Peterborough barely bothered to show up as we walked to a 4-0 win. Lambert scored twice and Stewart and MacKay got the other goals.

Away at Sheffield United and MacKay scored twice and Cornu tapped in an easy third to make a 24th minute penalty kick goal from Sheffield useless.

An odd thing happened after the Sheffield game. I had been sitting at my desk when I received a phone call, it was fairly late in the evening so I should have been more aware of it. I picked it up and heard the following: “Grand Fromage? I’d just like to congratulate you on recent victory.”

“What?” I said.

A pause. “Err… That’s you, right, Fromage?”

“Are you making a joke?”

“This is Camembert. Brie asked me to check up on your progress. I…”

At that point I hung up. Stupid prank callers.

I’d say that the call had thrown me off my tactical thoughts and that is why we lost the next game to Brighton at home 2-0. Except that if I said that it would be an outright lie, and the only reason we lost was that Kenny Robertson had a bad day, something we need to expect every now and then with a keeper his age.

We got back on the winning track away at Stoke with a 1-0 win. It was a costly victory as an injury to Stephen Graham will force the full-back to miss 3 months of the season.

A dominating 2-0 win over Darlington followed. Vahirua and MacKay (who has been quite impressive so far) scored in the first 30 minutes and the visitors couldn’t get a shot on target.

The 4-0 win away at Wycombe was notable only for braces from both Vahirua and Crawford .

The 1-0 win against Swindon should have been much larger. MacKay’s 2nd minute goal (where he span past a player with a quick turn, and fired home low) was excellent, but with 12 more shots during the game, I expect a better return.

This stretch was ended by a 5-2 win over Chesterfield. The game was made slightly interesting when Chesterfield scored twice to take it to 3-2 in the 76th minute, but they promptly had a player sent off, and Vahirua and MacKay each then got their 2nd goals of the day. Stewart had struck the first goal, giving him 4 for the season, a quite unexpected offensive bonus.

With 16 games gone… and a whopping 30 still to play, Dover has acquired 40 points.

Not shabby at all.

Even some in the media are saying that nothing can stop us from a successful season. One particular journalist, that Keating person, keeps writing how Dover is showing the future of English football, and that the FA should take notice of how we groom the best and brightest of young English lads.

I think I’m going to have to write them a letter.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> ************************************************* English Second Division - Wednesday 29th October******************************************* ******Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts---------------------1st Dover 16 8 0 1 25 4 5 1 1 15 6 40 2nd Notts Co 16 7 1 0 16 8 5 0 3 20 14 37 ---------------------3rd Gillingham 16 6 1 1 19 9 4 2 2 21 14 33 4th Tranmere 16 4 2 2 14 10 5 1 2 15 8 30 5th Brentford 16 5 2 1 15 8 4 1 3 18 17 30 6th Wycombe 16 4 1 3 16 16 5 1 2 16 14 29 ----------------------7th Northampton 16 6 2 0 18 6 1 5 2 14 15 28 ...20th Darlington 16 2 3 3 14 18 1 3 4 8 15 15 ----------------------21st Stockport 16 2 2 4 6 8 1 3 4 7 13 14 22nd Brighton 16 2 2 4 9 12 2 0 6 9 16 14 23rd Oxford 16 2 2 4 13 16 2 0 6 6 14 14 24th Macclesfield 16 1 2 4 8 13 0 0 9 1 20 5 Goalsos Player Club Apps Gls-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Steve Speight Notts Co 16 12 2nd Willie Taylor Wycombe 9 (3) 11 3rd Kenny Stuart Hull 16 11 4th Jason Lunt Brentford 16 10 5th Darren Maddison Brentford 16 10 7th Xavier Vahirua Dover 14 10 8th Jimmy MacKay Dover 16 10 Assistsos Player Club Apps Asts-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Marcelo Rosales Notts Co 16 9 2nd Jack Stimpson Gillingham 16 8 3rd John Andrews Notts Co 16 7 4th David Reid Rotherham 16 7 5th Grégory Faivre Dover 15 7 16th Guillaume Lambert Dover 11 5 Average Ratingos Player Club Apps Av R-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Matt Jones Northampton 13 8.08 2nd Jack Stimpson Gillingham 16 8.06 3rd Alan Stewart Dover 12 8.00 4th Mark Riley Burnley 16 8.00 5th Stephen Graham Dover 10 8.00 11th Vincent Robin Dover 16 7.81 25th Grégory Faivre Dover 15 7.67 26th Guillaume Lambert Dover 11 7.64 Man of the Matchos Player Club Apps MoM-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Chris Parker Peterborough 16 5 2nd Daniel Davis Burnley 15 4 3rd Gary Fowler Northampton 16 4 4th Jason Lunt Brentford 16 3 5th Willie Taylor Wycombe 9 (3) 3 12th Stephen Graham Dover 10 3 </pre>

retired_swmchick2006

---

From November 1st until we play Norwich on December 30th this weekend, Dover will have played 11 games. Not a bad number, especially when one considers that 4 of those games were in cups.

The match after the Chesterfield game was away at Blackpool. It had all the markings of a loss, a dubious early penalty kick goal for the home side. An opposition keeper having an excellent day. Yet after David Cameron scored his first ever goal for Dover (and in the process made up for giving away the penalty), and after we switched to a more direct style, Blackpool couldn’t stop us from scoring twice more. Vahirua was determined to get on the scoresheet and did in the 76th. Stewart pounced on a rebound to make it 3-1.

I’ve been thinking about Vahirua, and why he seems to just keep getting better and better despite the level of opposition getting higher and higher. I think it must be that he has a very specific task to do. He runs at the opposition. That’s it. Sometimes he scores, sometimes he lays the ball off. It’s simple, and he doesn’t even have to think about it. Until the opposition man marks him, he’ll keep doing it.

In the next match away at Burnley, one might have thought I paid off their keeper Stuart Murray (Scottish) for all the good he did on the day. Crawford scored twice, Vahirua got yet another goal, and MacKay tacked on one at the 90th minute mark just for fun.

Next up for Dover was the 1st round FA Cup game against then 2nd place (in Division 2) Notts County. The FA Cup is growing on me. There is something about it that has some indescribable quality, some degree of unpredictability that makes for exciting games. Players don’t do quite what you expect they’d do in a league game. It makes me want to win the whole thing… so I put out a first choice squad.

This game wasn’t the one to give big hopes though. It was exciting though, a 2-2 draw with 13 shots from Notts County and 11 from us. The replay would come in 11 days.

The league game against Stockport wasn’t exciting. A great defensive performance from Robin denied the visitors any opportunities, and Vahirua outjumped the keeper to nod one in and give us a 1-0 win.

Nearly the identical thing happened in the replay versus Notts County, except this time Vahirua scored with a low strike, and a 1-0 result put us through to face Rochdale in the next round.

A lopsided 3-1 win against Gillingham was the end of November. Vahirua scored twice, Lambert once, and the game was only notable for Robertson being injured and out for a few weeks.

November had been good. Undefeated in league play, and the November Manager of the Month Award was sent my way again. Vahirua was rightfully named Player of the Month, and the media has cleverly described him as ‘free-scoring’.

For the 2nd Round FA Cup Division 3 side Rochdale did their best to hold us scoreless, but Vahirua, yet again, did the business and scored just before halftime, which was the only shot we could put past Martin McGowan.

For the Vans Trophy, Dover had Conference side Dag & Red, and it was Paul Bennett who got on the scoresheet twice for a 2-0 win. Bennett had gotten the start due a slight injury to Vahirua.

Back in league play, Oxford (sitting well down the table) shouldn’t have troubled us much, but the game turned into one of the best of the season. Scoreless until halftime, Faivre scored his first ever goal for Dover from a Gallagher cross to give us a 1-0 lead. It seemed to be enough for the win until Oxford scored with a fantastic David Martin volley in the 88th. If one goal in the last minutes wasn’t enough, Cornu scored just moments later. If that wasn’t enough, Oxford scored just after that to beat the final whistle to make the game 2-2.

Vahirua came back to lead the team to a 3-1 win over Rotherham, scoring the opener. MacKay got our 2nd, and Gallagher scored in the 89th for his first for Dover.

We welcomed back Stephen Graham to the starting line-up for the game home to Tranmere, but had to play the majority of the game with only 10 players. Mickael Garcia was sent off in the 19th. One does have to wonder about the referee. Especially considering that was the only foul he called in the entire match. (He was given a suspension, but clearly the league had similar feelings as they revoked the ban.)

Heading into Christmas and for the 2nd year in a row we got our retirement notices for the coming summer. Knox and David Cameron were calling time on their careers.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> ************************************************* English Second Division - Saturday 27th December****************************************** *******Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Dover 23 9 1 1 26 4 9 2 1 30 11 57 2nd Notts Co 23 8 3 0 23 13 6 2 4 24 18 47 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3rd Tranmere 24 8 3 2 23 13 5 2 4 15 11 44 4th Gillingham 24 7 2 2 22 13 5 4 4 31 24 42 5th Wycombe 23 6 1 4 24 21 6 3 3 26 21 40 6th Northampton 23 8 2 2 24 12 2 7 2 20 20 39 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7th Brentford 23 6 2 3 19 11 5 2 5 21 21 37 ...20th Burnley 23 3 4 5 15 21 3 3 5 18 19 25 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------21st Darlington 23 4 4 3 17 19 1 5 6 10 21 24 22nd Chesterfield 23 5 3 3 17 14 0 4 8 9 21 22 23rd Oxford 23 2 4 6 19 24 3 0 8 9 22 19 24th Macclesfield 23 2 2 8 16 27 0 0 11 2 23 8 Goalsos Player Club Apps Gls-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Xavier Vahirua Dover 20 16 2nd Kenny Stuart Hull 22 15 3rd Willie Taylor Wycombe 15 (3) 14 4th Jason Lunt Brentford 23 13 5th Mark Riley Burnley 22 13 10th Jimmy MacKay Dover 23 12 Assistsos Player Club Apps Asts-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st John Andrews Notts Co 23 11 2nd Pete Bull Swindon 19 10 3rd Marcelo Rosales Notts Co 20 9 4th David Reid Rotherham 23 9 5th Jim Ramsey Hull 23 9 6th Guillaume Lambert Dover 18 9 10th Grégory Faivre Dover 22 8 Average Ratingos Player Club Apps Av R-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Paul Hughes Notts Co 21 8.05 2nd Matt Jones Northampton 20 8.00 3rd Jack Stimpson Ipswich 17 8.00 4th Mark Riley Burnley 22 7.95 5th John Webster Crewe 13 7.92 6th Alan Stewart Dover 19 7.84 10th Xavier Vahirua Dover 20 7.75 17th Vincent Robin Dover 23 7.70 27th Guillaume Lambert Dover 18 7.56 Man of the Matchos Player Club Apps MoM-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Chris Parker Peterborough 23 6 2nd Daniel Davis Burnley 22 5 3rd Jason Lunt Brentford 23 4 4th Willie Taylor Wycombe 15 (3) 4 5th Tony Hammond Rotherham 21 4 8th Xavier Vahirua Dover 20 4 26th Stephen Graham Dover 11 3 </pre>

retired_swmchick2006

From December 30th to February 17th, and slated to continue on until several weeks from now, Dover will have played a game every 3 or 4 games, with just one break, caused by a rain-out.

That, I guess is one of the side-effects of actually trying to win cup games.

Another side-effect is the impact it can have on your league form.

After the 0-0 draw with Tranmere, we went to Norwich. After a decent first half, we were soundly dismantled in the second. It’s one of the first times I’ve seen our first choice squad thoroughly outplayed.

The next match was at the Crabbe in the FA Cup 3rd round against Division One Portsmouth. The visitor’s got a great start when Alvarez scored in the 14th, but Dover found a way back when MacKay set up Gallagher for the equalizer. MacKay was looking like our best threat, and when he went diving for a Faivre freekick, the Portsmouth keeper was left stranded and we took the lead. In the 2nd half, a blistering shot from Tony Thomas, tied things up for Portsmouth. It looked like my halftime substitution of forgotten-man midfielder Ian Scott for an ineffective Crawford had backfired, until the 83rd when Scott went on a run from Dover’s half of the pitch, beat two players, and rifled home with his left foot. A highlight reel quality goal from the player’s who mainly seen in a back-up role now.

In the following league game, we carried over some of that good play into a 2-1 win over challenger Notts County. Vahirua struck twice in the game, before our opponents knocked home in the 76th.

Macclesfield got a 3rd minute goal from their Irish striker Mark Smyth, and then held on for the win. Dover’s cause wasn’t helped by the sending off of Mickael Garcia another straight red that was appealed, and once again the FA agreed and this time reduced the ban.

We needed penalties to get past Torquay in the next round of the Vans Trophy, but new signing Gary Paterson (a fine prospect, who had also scored his first goal for the club during the game), Gallagher, young Ian Thomson, and Ian Scott all buried their penalties while Torquay missed twice.

Rarely used Nicholas Lefebvre gave us a spark in the next match by scoring early and then leading the team to a easy 5-0 win over Brentford. The kind of match you hope for in league play.

Which was not the case with the following league game at home against Torquay. Robertson gave up a goal on the only shot he faced on target (I have to keep reminding myself he’s still just 20 years old) and the rest of the squad couldn’t find much room against the visitor’s.

The next game was the FA Cup 4th round away against Premiership side Sunderland. The home side was quite overconfident that they would get a win and fielded a mostly second choice squad. Nevertheless, they had their first choice keeper Andrei Kallaste to blame for Dover running away with an excellent 3-0 win. Thomson scored his first goal for the club, Lefebvre got the 2nd, and Vahirua scored the third before he was sent off in the 2nd half for kicking Belgian Pascal Mahieu.

We had Q.P.R. scheduled for the game after that, but a postponement gave us a needed week break before facing Northampton.

It didn’t help. Dover barely showed up for the game, and were beaten 1-0, and I hate to say it, deservedly so.

The Vans Trophy Quarterfinal was next, and MacKay’s 19th minute goal was all we needed to advance past Gillingham.

Without the suspended Vahirua we couldn’t crack open Hull, and the game finished 0-0.

Lefebvre continued to make the most of his time on the pitch by once again sparking us to an easy win. He got another goal, MacKay got two, and Bennett got the 4th in a 4-0 walkover in the make-up game against Q.P.R.

All told, the poor league form hadn’t hurt us as much as it could have. We still sat in first place, 7 points ahead of Notts County and 9 ahead of third place Tranmere.

FA Cup 5th round was next, and home advantage may have given us a hand in the 2-1 win over Division One Aston Villa. Lambert scored on a header from a Graham freekick, and MacKay pounced on a rebound to score just after halftime. Villa scored on a penalty in the 90th minute. We had made the quarterfinals.

The Vans Trophy (Southern Section) Semi was next up for the club, and we weren’t troubled by a Northampton side in a 2-0 win. Stewart scored in the 20th and Robin sealed the win in the 90th.

Still 15 more league games to play, and 2 cups to finish off... and we still haven't fallen lower than first place.

God... England really does suck your soul right out of you.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> ************************************************* English Second Division - Wednesday 11th February****************************************** *******Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Dover 31 11 2 2 35 5 10 2 4 33 17 67 2nd Notts Co 31 11 3 1 34 20 7 3 6 32 26 60 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3rd Tranmere 30 11 3 2 30 16 5 4 5 17 14 55 4th Northampton 31 12 2 2 34 18 3 7 5 25 29 54 5th Wycombe 31 9 1 5 31 26 7 3 6 33 31 52 6th Gillingham 31 10 2 4 31 20 5 4 6 31 29 51 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7th Brentford 31 9 3 3 27 15 6 2 8 24 33 50 Goalsos Player Club Apps Gls-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Xavier Vahirua Dover 26 20 2nd Jason Lunt Brentford 31 19 3rd Kenny Stuart Hull 30 17 4th Matt Jones Northampton 28 16 5th Mark Riley Burnley 27 16 11th Jimmy MacKay Dover 28 14 Assistsos Player Club Apps Asts-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Boukhounphong Gigiadze Wycombe 26 (1) 13 2nd Pete Bull Swindon 27 11 3rd John Andrews Notts Co 31 11 4th Jim Ramsey Hull 30 11 5th Marcelo Rosales Notts Co 24 10 9th Guillaume Lambert Dover 23 9 18th Grégory Faivre Dover 30 8 Average Ratingos Player Club Apps Av R-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Jack Stimpson Ipswich 17 8.00 2nd Mark Riley Burnley 27 7.96 3rd Paul Hughes Notts Co 29 7.93 4th Tony Hammond Rotherham 29 7.86 5th Matt Jones Northampton 28 7.86 11th Alan Stewart Dover 24 7.71 21st Xavier Vahirua Dover 26 7.58 25th Vincent Robin Dover 31 7.55 Man of the Matchos Player Club Apps MoM-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Jason Lunt Brentford 31 7 2nd Chris Parker Peterborough 29 6 3rd Daniel Davis Burnley 24 (2) 6 4th Tony Hammond Rotherham 29 6 5th Dean Andrews Q.P.R. 29 5 16th Xavier Vahirua Dover 26 4 </pre>

retired_swmchick2006

Here’s a free scouting report of Dover for you: Play a 4-4-2 diamond. Strong defensively, sometimes erratic keeper, over-reliant on runs from attacking midfielder Vahirua. Got that?

Probably not.

Vahirua played the hero in the next game against Darlington, scoring his 50th and 51st league goals for Dover. The second of those came in 90th minute to give us the 2-1 win. Robin continued his fine season in central defense, and the rest of the Dover side played well enough that the win was quite deserved.

Erratic keeper? That’s the game against Stoke as Robertson gave up 3 goals in 30 minutes. Dover scored twice (Crawford and MacKay) but it wasn’t enough.

For the Vans Trophy Southern Section Final 1st Leg, it was hard to decide how to approach it. The league was far more important, and it was only Brighton that we were facing. So… a few changes from the 1st team, and Vahirua still scored twice to take a 2-0 lead into the 2nd leg.

Robertson gave up a goal on the only shot he needed to save in the 9th minute against Sheffield United, and it took us the whole game to finally crack their defense. It was Ian Scott who once again had the last minute goal to earn a tie.

A nearly complete 2nd choice team easily beat Brighton in the 2nd leg 2-0, so Dover advanced to the Vans Trophy final.

It was the FA Cup quarterfinal away at Division One Coventry which was the target game of this stretch. The entire team was ready for the contest… which is a shame because we were poor, Robertson was awful, and Coventry scored twice in the 2nd half, which they dominated, and our hopeful cup run was done.

Dover had 4 more league games in March, now having to make up games due to the cups.

It was a Vahirua brace late in the game that overcame a Blackpool side as Knox got the start in the nets for the out of form Robertson. The 2-1 win was just barely deserved.

Against Wycombe, Faivre got himself sent off in the 11th minute (after a questionable yellow, and when he started arguing the ref gave him another). Dover was still far too good on the day and got goals from Vahirua and Lambert after being reduced to 10 men.

I can’t really describe the game against Burnley as anything but strange. Knox not particularly on good form, Vahirua on good form, Burnley fairly bad… all true. Result? A crazy 4-3 game that saw us go up 2-0, then 3-2, then finally a 4-3 win with a Ian Thomson header in the 86th minute.

These narrow wins finally caught up with us against Peterborough, who got their own last minute heroics to go out 2-1 victors. It is a good chance that Knox won’t play again this season, as even an erratic Robertson is a bit more consistent than this.

Against Swindon, we got a solid team performance for a much needed easy 3-1 win. The goals came from Gallagher, Vahirua, and MacKay.

So had anyone taking advantage of Dover’s odd form? Not really. Tranmere, who were in 2nd by this point, hadn’t strung 2 wins together since December. Blackpool, who were in 3rd, were arguably the hottest team, but Dover had given them their only loss of the new year. Notts County, who now sat 4th after a long time in 2nd, had only managed one win in March and were in freefall.

By my calculations, with a game in hand Dover needed just 2 more wins to guarantee a promotion, and 3 would probably give them the league.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">******************************************** * English Second Division - Saturday 3rd April********************************************* Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts-----------------------1st Dover 39 14 3 3 46 13 12 2 5 39 21 83 2nd Tranmere 40 14 4 2 37 18 7 5 8 26 21 72 -----------------------3rd Blackpool 40 13 3 3 39 19 7 7 7 30 27 70 4th Notts Co 40 12 4 3 41 28 8 6 7 43 37 70 5th Gillingham 40 12 3 5 36 23 7 6 7 42 39 66 6th Northampton 40 13 2 6 41 27 5 9 5 32 32 65 -----------------------7th Wycombe 40 12 2 6 41 36 8 3 9 35 36 65 Goalsos Player Club Apps Gls-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Xavier Vahirua Dover 34 28 2nd Jason Lunt Brentford 40 21 3rd Matt Jones Northampton 37 21 4th Mark Matthews Darlington 40 21 5th Mark Riley Burnley 36 20 13th Jimmy MacKay Dover 36 16 Assistsos Player Club Apps Asts-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Jim Ramsey Hull 39 16 2nd Boukhounphong Gigiadze Wycombe 35 (1) 16 3rd John Andrews Notts Co 40 15 4th David Reid Rotherham 40 13 5th Andrés Merino Stoke 33 13 20th Grégory Faivre Dover 37 9 Average Ratingos Player Club Apps Av R-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Mark Riley Burnley 36 8.00 2nd Matt Jones Northampton 37 7.81 3rd Paul Hughes Notts Co 37 7.78 4th Eddie Cole Rotherham 30 (3) 7.73 5th Tony Hammond Rotherham 36 7.72 6th Alan Stewart Dover 30 7.70 11th Xavier Vahirua Dover 34 7.62 16th Stephen Graham Dover 20 7.60 27th Vincent Robin Dover 39 7.49 Man of the Matchos Player Club Apps MoM-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Xavier Vahirua Dover 34 8 2nd Chris Parker Peterborough 38 7 3rd Jason Lunt Brentford 40 7 4th Tony Hammond Rotherham 36 7 5th Mark Matthews Darlington 40 7 </pre>

retired_swmchick2006

It didn’t take long. The first win came at Brighton as Graham had an excellent game. His 70th minute penalty sealed the win after Crawford had scored just before halftime.

After that 2-0 win, we needed just one more to secure promotion. It was wrapped up in just 18 minutes against Chesterfield. Vahirua scored in the 6th, and Cornu scored 12 minutes later and then in the 50th to cruise to an easy 3-0 win.

Promotion was achieved, but we still had the possibility of two more trophies.

Does anyone care about the Vans Trophy? No? At any rate, we won that with an exciting golden goal 2-1 win over Stoke. 53000 fans watches as young Paterson scored the equalizer for Dover in the 82nd to cancel out a 37th strike from Scott young. In 2nd extra time Vahirua finally found an opening and lobbed home for the trophy. An excellent all around performance from the whole side, with Robin again being immense in the center of the back line.

It was no surprise then to see Robin as well as Vahirua named in the Division Two select team. Their seasons were obvious enough. What was a bit surprising to see was Robertson named in that select team too… but I guess if you’re side concedes the least, it is almost assured. Stewart should have been named to the squad, as well as Graham but you can’t expect the English Players to get that much right.

We still had our eyes on the league title and a new record for points, but Notts County (who were still fighting for a play-off spot) earned a 1-0 win against us at the Crabble. Though several of our key players were still recuperating on the bench.

Even with the loss, Dover was handed the title thanks to Stoke’s 2-0 win over 2nd place Tranmere.

So the last remaining goal was to get record points (the most goals record, was a bit out of reach). If we won our last 4, or won 3 and tied one it was ours.

Back-to-back 1-0 wins over Gillingham and Q.P.R. kept our hopes up, but Stockport got a 2-1 thanks to a penalty, and Dover could only tie the record. The 3-1 season ending win over Oxford did that.

April had been generous to Dover, and the monthly manager award was handed out to yours truly. The FA did fine Dover 14000 pounds for their disciplinary record, a middling judgment caused mostly by Faivre’s 13 yellows and Garcia’s 2 reds.

Singed Pascal McIntosh, English Division Two Manager of the Year.

End of Season Three

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> ************************************** English Second Division - Sunday 30th**************************************Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st C Dover 46 16 3 4 50 15 15 2 6 46 23 98 2nd P Tranmere 46 17 4 2 44 18 7 6 10 28 26 82 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3rd Blackpool 46 15 4 4 46 23 7 9 7 33 30 79 4th Northampton 46 15 2 6 47 29 6 12 5 36 35 77 5th Notts Co 46 12 6 5 46 35 9 6 8 46 40 75 6th P Gillingham 46 14 4 5 40 24 7 7 9 44 43 74 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7th Norwich 46 14 7 2 47 25 7 4 12 30 39 74 ... 20th Burnley 46 6 8 9 28 36 6 3 14 31 44 47 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------21st R Swindon 46 8 6 9 40 40 4 4 15 33 52 46 22nd R Brighton 46 7 4 12 26 34 5 5 13 20 37 45 23rd R Oxford 46 6 7 10 29 37 4 3 16 20 52 40 24th R Macclesfield 46 7 2 14 30 39 2 2 19 13 44 31 Goalsos Player Club Apps Gls-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Xavier Vahirua Dover 41 30 2nd Jason Lunt Brentford 46 25 3rd Mark Matthews Darlington 46 24 4th Matt Jones Northampton 44 23 5th Mark Riley Burnley 42 21 13th Jimmy MacKay Dover 42 19 Assistsos Player Club Apps Asts-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Boukhounphong Gigiadze Wycombe 41 (1) 20 2nd John Andrews Notts Co 48 18 3rd Jim Ramsey Hull 45 17 4th Andrés Merino Stoke 38 15 5th David Reid Rotherham 46 14 11th Guillaume Lambert Dover 37 12 27th Grégory Faivre Dover 40 9 Average Ratingos Player Club Apps Av R-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Mark Riley Burnley 42 7.86 2nd Paul Hughes Notts Co 45 7.76 3rd Alan Stewart Dover 31 7.71 4th Eddie Cole Rotherham 35 (3) 7.68 5th Matt Jones Northampton 44 7.68 12th Stephen Graham Dover 25 7.60 14th Xavier Vahirua Dover 41 7.59 Man of the Matchos Player Club Apps MoM-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Jason Lunt Brentford 46 9 2nd Xavier Vahirua Dover 41 9 3rd Tony Hammond Rotherham 42 8 4th Chris Parker Peterborough 41 7 5th Mark Matthews Darlington 46 7 10th Stephen Graham Dover 25 6 </pre>

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> ********************************* Dover Athletic - Sunday 30th May*********************************No Name Position(s) Nat Born Age Caps Gls Wages Expires Value-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------17 Bennett, Paul M C SCO 26.6.83 20 - - £450 22.6.06 £35K 6 Cameron, David D C SCO 17.8.69 34 - - £400 28.6.06 £20K 19 Campbell, Mark S C SCO 31.1.82 22 - - £160 28.6.05 Free 13 Castro, Cyrille GK FRA 20.9.75 28 - - £400 28.6.05 Free 20 Cissé, Cédric DM RC FRA 29.6.82 21 - - £400 24.6.06 £20K 35 Cooper, Mark D RLC SCO 24.1.84 20 - - £180 23.6.05 £16K 28 Cornu, Ludovic S C FRA 31.12.78 25 - - £600 27.6.06 £170K 9 Crawford, Neil S C SCO 5.2.82 22 - - £275 17.6.06 £90K 7 Desse, Arnaud AM/F R FRA 9.10.73 30 - - £425 18.6.05 £60K - Djorkaeff, Karim AM C FRA 25.12.85 18 - - £160 10.6.06 £22K 32 Duchemin, Christian S C FRA 5.10.82 21 - - £450 1.6.05 Free 3 Faivre, Grégory D L FRA 15.6.74 29 - - £500 28.6.05 £95K 30 Ferguson, Tom D C SCO 17.3.82 22 - - £220 24.6.07 £40K 34 Gallagher, Graham M R SCO 6.7.83 20 - - £850 24.6.06 £100K 39 Garcia, Franck SW C FRA 15.6.86 17 - - £250 25.6.06 £20K 5 Garcia, Mickaël D R FRA 10.5.78 26 - - £450 23.6.06 £95K 2 Graham, Stephen D R SCO 28.1.81 23 - - £1.3K 16.6.06 £475K - Hoy, Stéphane M L FRA 13.3.85 19 - - £170 3.6.07 £28K 38 Isidore, Patrick AM/F C FRA 23.2.86 18 - - £400 1.6.05 £14K 25 Keita, Henri D R FRA 20.8.77 26 - - £200 23.6.06 £45K 1 Knox, Darren GK SCO 8.9.67 36 - - £425 1.6.05 £22K 4 Lambert, Guillaume AM L FRA 8.12.75 28 - - £400 24.6.05 £170K 21 Lefebvre, Nicolas DM LC FRA 21.1.72 32 - - £325 25.6.06 £24K 10 MacKay, Jimmy F LC SCO 24.6.79 24 - - £375 24.6.07 £220K 8 Martin, Liam M RC SCO 13.1.80 24 - - £140 22.6.04 £2K 22 Marty, André AM/F L FRA 16.8.73 30 - - £375 2.6.06 £70K 31 Nicol, Steven GK SCO 31.3.82 22 - - £45 16.6.04 £1K 16 Oliver, Jamie S C SCO 15.5.83 21 - - £200 16.6.05 £55K 11 Paterson, Gary F RC SCO 22.2.84 20 - - £400 28.6.06 £130K 23 Patterson, Kevin D L SCO 8.9.83 20 - - £275 9.6.06 £22K 36 Robertson, Kenny GK SCO 26.1.84 20 - - £525 14.6.08 £80K 18 Robin, Vincent D C FRA 1.8.74 29 - - £220 23.6.06 £120K 27 Scott, Ian M C SCO 11.7.78 25 - - £400 13.6.04 £3K 12 Stewart, Alan DM C SCO 10.3.80 24 - - £375 28.6.06 £170K 24 Thomson, Ian D/DM C SCO 19.8.84 19 - - £1.1K 1.6.08 £90K 26 Vahirua, Xavier M C FRA 3.9.77 26 - - £925 28.6.06 £210K 29 Wilson, David F LC SCO 10.4.79 25 - - £525 24.6.06 £60K No Name Apps Gls Con Pens Asts Yel Red MoM Av R--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------17 Bennett, Paul 8 (1) 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 7.00 6 Cameron, David 29 1 0 0 3 1 0 1 7.28 19 Campbell, Mark 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- 13 Castro, Cyrille 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- 20 Cissé, Cédric 0 (7) 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 6.57 35 Cooper, Mark 2 (17) 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 6.74 28 Cornu, Ludovic 28 (10) 9 0 0 2 0 0 1 7.16 9 Crawford, Neil 28 (7) 8 0 0 4 0 1 1 7.14 7 Desse, Arnaud 9 (8) 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 6.65 - Djorkaeff, Karim - - - - - - - - ---- 32 Duchemin, Christian 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- 3 Faivre, Grégory 51 1 0 0 13 16 1 2 7.43 30 Ferguson, Tom 7 (8) 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 6.93 34 Gallagher, Graham 46 (2) 3 0 0 7 5 0 0 6.90 39 Garcia, Franck 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- 5 Garcia, Mickaël 31 0 0 0 2 6 2 1 7.10 2 Graham, Stephen 33 3 0 2 (2) 10 1 0 7 7.64 - Hoy, Stéphane - - - - - - - - ---- 38 Isidore, Patrick 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- 25 Keita, Henri 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6.00 1 Knox, Darren 7 (4) 0 10 0 0 0 0 0 7.36 4 Lambert, Guillaume 48 7 0 0 14 1 0 2 7.19 21 Lefebvre, Nicolas 15 (7) 4 0 0 3 4 0 2 7.27 10 MacKay, Jimmy 53 22 0 0 7 0 0 5 7.43 8 Martin, Liam 6 (2) 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 6.88 22 Marty, André 9 (2) 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 6.55 31 Nicol, Steven 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- 16 Oliver, Jamie 1 (2) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6.33 11 Paterson, Gary 8 (11) 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 6.84 23 Patterson, Kevin 10 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 6.70 36 Robertson, Kenny 54 0 38 0 0 1 0 1 7.26 18 Robin, Vincent 60 3 0 0 1 5 0 3 7.45 27 Scott, Ian 4 (26) 2 0 0 3 1 0 0 6.63 12 Stewart, Alan 43 8 0 0 8 4 0 4 7.70 24 Thomson, Ian 20 (6) 2 0 0 2 5 0 1 7.42 26 Vahirua, Xavier 51 37 0 0 2 0 2 10 7.51 29 Wilson, David 6 (24) 3 0 0 1 1 0 2 7.03 </pre>

retired_swmchick2006

There was no doubt that Division One was going to be a significant challenge as compared to the previous years. With a 4 million cut of the TV rights for the next season, Dover had the funds to make some serious acquisitions. The board also committed to improving the training facilities once again.

First in was left-back Marc McNab who should start instead of Faivre.

Then we brought in Guillaume Chevalier a French goalkeeper who hopefully could add a bit of consistency in the position. Kenny Robertson was still a valuable member, but with the retirement of Knox, a reliable 2nd option was needed.

After that was right-back Danny McIntyre. He was still a teenager and would probably would back-up Mickael Garcia at the spot.

Why was Garcia first choice? The departure of brilliant right-back Stephen Graham to Newcastle for a million pounds. Blasted English money.

Center-back Mark Robertson joined to give us another player at the position.

The big buy was Scottish striker Michael Lamont (capped at B team level) who came in for 1 million. Quick and skilled, he may be the best player on the squad now.

Defensive cover was added with James Donnelly and Michael Delaunay who both could play at left-back or center-back, though the latter also could over at defensive midfield.

We added attacking options in dribbling specialist Chris MacDonald and crossing ace David Main. Both could play on the left wing, but MacDonald may just push Vahirua for the starting spot at attacking mid.

Several players were cut off on frees from the reserves, but still a bunch of players hanging on in the back-up squad. The current selection (at least for the first game) is as follows:

GK: Guillaume Chevalier
DL: Marc McNab
DC: Mark Robertson and Vincent Robin
DR: Mickael Garcia
DMC: Michael Delaunay
ML: David Main
MR: Graham Gallagher
AMC: Chris MacDonald
SC: Jimmy MacKay and Michael Lamont