The win over Nottingham Forest was on the last day of December. We moved into the new year hoping to maintain our suddenly good league form.
The 0-0 draw at home to Derby wasn’t exactly what we wanted, but we managed to scrounge a point despite not having a very good performance.
Joly continues to show confidence at center-back, and had a man of the match performance in this one.
January 7th saw us head to Craven Cottage in Fulham for the FA Cup 3rd Round. Seven minutes into the game and Fulham took the lead off of a corner as James outjumped
O’Neill and headed home. We drove for the winner and
Craig forced several brilliant saves from Fulham keeper Lucci. In the 38th,
Craig’s diving header on a
O’Neill cross looked like a tying goal, but Lucci palmed it with one hand and trapped it on the line. We couldn’t find anything through the middle of the pitch as Fulham was doing a fantastic job keeping us off the ball. We switched to a 4-4-2 at halftime by bringing on academy star
Cunningham. In the 77th,
O’Neill switched the ball across the field to
MacLeod and the 31 year old veteran midfielder hammered the tying goal into the upper left corner. We brought on
Lamont to go for the win as Fulham starting breaking forward more.
McNab went down from injury, and we had no substitutes left we had 7 minutes to play with only 10 men on the pitch. A replay was looking likely until
Lamont picked up the ball, ran straight at goal and chipped the ball into the area for
Craig. The striker got up to head it, and this time no save was made. The 2-1 win pushed us into the next round. It had been
MacLeod who had driven us to the win.
Everyone expected a let-down in the league match against Southampton, but the visitors were in terrible form.
Craig used one of his first touches of the game to nutmeg Alsonso, and then ripped a shot into the net for a 1-0 lead. It was all Dover after that as chances flew fast and furious for us, while the visitors could do nothing with their possession. The 2nd goal finally came in the 77th as
Craig converted a penalty after falling in the box (somewhat easily, it must be said). Southampton collapsed after that and
Lamont came on to score his own brace and
Christie scored his first goal for Dover. The 5-0 win was by far the biggest of the season.
On the road at Sunderland and an unexpected goal from the under-performing attacking midfielder position, this time
Lavagne, was enough for us to steal a 1-0 victory. The player had an early goal ruled out for a handball and
Abiven had one of his better days in the net to deny the home side any come-back.
Early goals from
Craig and
McCabe sent us to an easy 2-1 win at home over Fulham.
MacLeod continued to show impressive form as he set up both goals from the left wing.
In the FA Cup 4th Round, we were drawn away to Blackburn. The home side dominated possession and took the lead in the 63rd with a headed goal. We immediately switched to a 4-4-2 and looked for an equalizer, and
Craig scored in the 85th from a
MacLeod cross to shock the home side on one of our few solid counter-attacks. A more one-sided game in terms of possession I haven’t seen as Blackburn had 62% of the ball. The replay would come in 10 days.
The 0-0 draw on the road to Leeds was a solid defensive performance and a good point. We showed little offense, but neither did the home side.
Veteran defensive midfielder
McCabe struck with a brilliant freekick to give us a 1-0 win at home over Everton, as our good league form was continuing into February.
MacLeod had won player of the month award for January, and with 3 wins and a 2 draws I had the best January of the managers.
The replay against Blackburn finally came down to penalties, and Dover prevailed 4-3.
Diawara coolly finished his before the Blackburn taker blazed his over. It had been a game we probably should have won in regular time, but Blackburn’s keeper had been stellar. We were through to the 5th round.
A 1-1 draw away at Arsenal was thanks to a great game from
Abiven and another fine goal form
MacLeod in the 5th. Although the homeside tied before halftime, the game was fairly even in a miserable day of wind and drizzle at Highbury.
The 5th round match-up looked to be in our favor as we had Division One side Preston at home. Young prospect
Cunningham was given a start, and repaid the faith with an 8th minute goal. Dover should have sealed the game with another, but Preston keeper Winkler was the best player on the field and kept his team in the game. His offense was nowhere to be found as Preston managed only one shot, which was off-target.
Somehow Dover managed to throw-away a 2-0 lead (a
Craig brace) at Walsall. The home side scored two fairly strange goals in the last 20 minutes. It could have been worse for us as
Abiven appeared to pull down a Walsall player in the box in the dying seconds, but the referee thankfully didn’t give a penalty.
The draw took us into March, and back into European play. Our match-up in the UEFA Cup 4th round with FC Kobenhavn was fairly favorable considering the other teams (Milan, Chelsea, Werder Bremen, Juventus) we could have been facing. A monthlong injury to
Abiven meant we would be relying on
Chevalier to carry us into the next rounds. The first leg at home was ours to lose, and we nearly gave away the lead as
Chevalier took out a players legs in the box and gave up a penalty. He redeemed himself with a save.
MacLeod continued his excellent season by setting up
Fraser in the area, and the midfielder buried his shot with no defenders anywhere near him.
Craig’s goal in the 67th, his 25th of the season, was well deserved and we clung to a 2-0 win. Kobenhavn had a late goal ruled out for an offside call.
A home game against Charlton was sandwiched in before the return leg, and it took an 84th minute goal from man of the match
Joly, his first ever for Dover, to secure the 3 points and continue our climb up the table.
At Kobenhavn the aggregate was never in doubt as the home side rarely threatened and
Robertson struck the bar with a freekick for Dover. We were through to the next round and would face German club Lubeck in the quarterfinals.
The FA Cup quarterfinal match-up against Division One W.B.A. was played at the Crabble and after
Craig scored in the 13th minute we relied on strong games from
Chevalier,
McCabe, and
Diawara to move into the next round.
Away at Lubeck, Dover found themselves down a goal at the 28th minute after the home side struck a fine goal from a team move.
Craig was having none of that, and beat 3 defenders on his own before tucking home a shot low into the corner to tie the game up in the 29th. Ten minutes later and Dover had the lead as
Craig’s beautiful half-volley beat the Lubeck keeper to give us a 2-1 lead. The 2nd half was a scrappy affair with
Christie scoring a header to go 3-1, before Lubeck converted a penalty after a
Joly foul to take it to 3-2. Two solid chances from
Paterson came close, but a 3-2 road win was good enough for us to take into the 2nd leg.
Craig was now showing the form of one of the best strikers in the UK as he carried us back from an early penalty goal from Bolton with two headed goals to give us a 2-1 win on the road in the 30th game of the league season. We hadn’t lost in league play since the Manchester United loss in mid-December.
Lubeck showed no belief that they could overcome the 3 away goals form the first leg and we cruised into UEFA Cup semifinals with a goal a piece from
Craig and
Lamont for an impressive 5-2 aggregate win. Our shocking European run was now blessed with a semi-final match-up against Juventus.
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts------------------------------1st Man Utd 30 14 0 1 46 10 9 3 3 31 19 72 ------------------------------2nd Arsenal 30 9 3 3 31 20 9 2 4 31 23 59 3rd Leeds 30 9 2 3 27 11 8 2 6 26 19 55 4th Tottenham 30 8 5 2 30 15 7 1 7 21 19 51 5th Liverpool 30 7 6 2 21 14 6 5 4 15 16 50 6th Dover 30 8 4 3 18 8 5 6 4 15 14 49 7th Derby 30 8 3 3 16 8 5 7 4 15 15 49 8th Everton 30 12 2 1 27 10 1 3 11 7 29 44 Goals
os Player Club Apps Gls-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Frank Voß Man Utd 26 21 2nd Michael Craig Dover 25 16 3rd Rónald Vargas Arsenal 22 (2) 15 4th Laurent Silvestre Liverpool 21 (1) 13 5th Jon Griffin Sunderland 30 12 Assists
os Player Club Apps Asts-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Gordon Baxter Arsenal 29 15 2nd Alex Talbot Man Utd 16 (6) 11 3rd Erik Schilder Man Utd 20 10 4th Errol Baker Tottenham 15 (11) 9 5th Nigel Chambers Man Utd 17 (2) 8 16th Gary MacLeod Dover 15 (2) 6 Average Rating
os Player Club Apps Av R-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Frank Voß Man Utd 26 8.50 2nd Craig Wilkinson Arsenal 18 (1) 7.95 3rd Erik Schilder Man Utd 20 7.90 4th Gordon Baxter Arsenal 29 7.90 5th Shaun Wilkinson Tottenham 23 7.87 20th Gary MacLeod Dover 15 (2) 7.53 22nd Michael Craig Dover 25 7.52 25th Nasser Joly Dover 29 7.48 Man of the Match: Pos Player Club Apps MoM-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Frank Voß Man Utd 26 9 2nd Dean Vaughan Blackburn 29 5 3rd Nick Ward Watford 29 5 4th Gordon Baxter Arsenal 29 4 5th Shaun Wilkinson Tottenham 23 4 11th Michael Craig Dover 25 4 24th Nasser Joly Dover 29 3 25th John McCabe Dover 23 3 </pre>
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