May would open in a week with a crucial fixture at Everton. We had a week to prepare and I intended to use that week well.
On the 1st, we went to Goodison to face the Premier leaders in their lair. I threw out a “best eleven” lineup that featured Thompson at DC rather than his customary DMC spot. On 20, Irvine gave Dover the 1-0 as the Dover defense kept stuffing Everton’s attempts to attack. Dover had the lead at the half. Despite a furious Everton on-slaught, we held on for the win. Next up was second placed Leeds at the Crabbe on May 8.
With three games remaining, the race had tightened. Everton led with 71 points. Leeds had 70 and both Dover and Man U had 67. It looked like it could go down to a nose.
Against Leeds at the Crabbe, Murray returned to the lineup, which put Thompson back at DMC. Batelle held down the LB spot in place of the injured Guerin. 19000 turned out for the final home game of the year. Fans watched a tight defensive struggle take place as Leeds took the 1-0 lead early and refused to relinquish it in the first half. Dover tried to fight back and McCann tied it late, but Sparrow scored in injury time to give Leeds the win. This effectively ended our title hunt as the most points we could gain now would be 73 or the same number that new Premier leader Leeds already had. We would have a week and half off before traveling to Old Trafford on May 17.
We went to Manchester with really, nothing to lose. Thus, I wasn’t really surprised when we jumped ahead of United just for minutes in as Liop nailed a beautiful header to open the scoring. Man U tied it twenty minutes in, but then Murray and Miller scored to make the score 3-1 Dover at the half. The second half saw United mount a comeback with a penalty conversion on 73, but Liop scored his second goal of the night to ice the 4-2 victory. Our last game of the year would be on Sunday May 23 at Charlton.
The last day of the season was going to be fun. Leeds had 73 points and was hosting Ipswich who was 16 in the league and Everton at 72 points were hosting Bolton who was 15 in the league. Meanwhile Dover at 70 points had to travel to London to face 12th placed Charlton.
As had been usual in these last few games, I stared the “best eleven” on a fine spring afternoon. But, the afternoon proved not to be fine for long. Charlton were determined to play the spoiler role to the hilt. Their keeper had a fantastic day and Abiven, though up to snuff, conceded two goals. Thus, on the last day of the season, Dover choked. In the end it didn’t matter as Leeds won to clinch the
Prem title outright and Everton drew to take second. Hard-charging Man U snuck into third with a win. This left us in fourth place. In many ways, it was a disappointing loss. All year we were fighting for first or second and then, over the last couple of games, we choke. It seemed like West Ham had finally caught up to Dover.
“You’re kidding me.”
“No I’m not sir.”
“Why, just tell me why Pascal.”
“You wouldn’t understand sir.”
“What’s with this sir nonsense?”
“Again, that’s something you wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me”
“Well sir, I’m not Pascal McIntosh.”
“Huh?”
“You heard me sir, I’m not Pascal.”
“Are you mad?”
“No sir.”
“But you look like Pascal. Look like Pascal…”
“But, sir, do I act like Pascal/”
“No. but people do change. Maybe you just need a rest/”
“I do sir, and that’s why I’m leaving. I’m tired of being someone I’m not.”
“But…”
“But nothing sir. I’m moving on with my life. I’m reclaiming my identity and then I’m moving back to the United States.”
“You’re utterly mad…”
“I may sound deranged sir, but the truth is often stranger than fiction.” At this point I handed the chairman a book. “Here read this and you’ll understand.”
“The Metamorphisis by Kafka?”
“That’s right sir.”
“The truth, preposterous.”
‘It is crazy sir, but it’s the truth.”
“You know Pascal, I’m glad you’re leaving. We don’t need a loon managing this club. Where are you going to coach now?”
“Men’s soccer at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock.”
“You’re not only crazy, Pascal. But a fool as well. Get out of my office!”
As the door closed behind me, I heard the thud of the book against the door. The sound hung in the air, seeming to symbolize the whole futile endeavor. I don’t know if I can go back to my proper time-line, but I will, at lest attempt to make this one my own.
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">********************************************* ************************************************** * English Premier Division - Sunday 23rd May 2010********************************************** ************************************************** ================================================== ============================================== 2009/0 Table============================================= ================================================== =Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st C Leeds 38 16 2 1 43 17 8 2 9 21 25 76 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2nd Everton 38 11 6 2 33 19 10 4 5 17 12 73 3rd Man Utd 38 12 6 1 31 12 7 8 4 31 23 71 4th Dover 38 12 3 4 33 12 9 4 6 27 16 70 5th Tottenham 38 14 2 3 30 10 5 9 5 21 23 68 6th Liverpool 38 10 4 5 28 21 7 5 7 28 23 60 7th Arsenal 38 7 7 5 29 22 9 3 7 32 28 58 8th Southampton 38 10 5 4 23 15 5 7 7 18 21 57 9th Nottm Forest 38 7 10 2 16 11 6 3 10 17 22 52 10th Watford 38 8 5 6 29 24 6 4 9 27 30 51 11th Charlton 38 8 7 4 23 18 5 3 11 17 29 49 12th Blackburn 38 9 5 5 16 15 4 4 11 11 19 48 13th Derby 38 7 5 7 25 24 4 7 8 18 22 45 14th Bolton 38 7 6 6 25 25 3 8 8 14 22 44 15th Fulham 38 8 5 6 24 22 4 3 12 17 32 44 16th Ipswich 38 8 6 5 22 20 1 8 10 16 33 41 17th Chelsea 38 7 3 9 26 30 4 4 11 25 46 40 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------18th R Sunderland 38 4 5 10 17 22 1 9 9 7 24 29 19th R Birmingham 38 4 10 5 18 19 1 3 15 6 33 28 20th R Hull 38 3 7 9 15 25 0 11 8 13 23 27 ************************************************** ********************************************** Dover Athletic - Sunday 23rd May 2010********************************************** ************************************************** ================================================== ============================================== 2009/0 Senior Club Stats============================================= ================================================== =No Name Apps Gls Con Pens Asts Yel Red MoM Av R--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1 Abiven, Olivier 56 0 44 0 0 0 0 2 7.41 17 Alves, Alessandro 6 (20) 2 0 0 1 0 0 1 6.58 32 Arphexad, Hugues 19 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 6.84 - Balfour, Stevie 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- 12 Barraud, Eric 11 (1) 1 0 0 1 3 0 1 6.58 30 Bataille, Laurent 13 (11) 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 6.71 - Brown, Colin 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- 7 Cunningham, Kevin 22 (9) 5 0 0 0 2 0 1 6.84 6 Diawara, Patrice 47 2 0 0 0 7 2 6 7.64 - Duriez, Philippe 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- 14 Fernandez, Alain 22 1 0 0 4 3 0 0 7.41 - Fischer, Pierre 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- 10 Foulon, Fabien 47 (2) 13 0 0 5 1 1 1 7.20 24 Gatumel, Hervé 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- 3 Guérin, Nicolas 35 2 0 0 4 5 0 0 7.23 20 Hughes, Andrew 5 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 7.00 25 Irvine, James 24 (10) 8 0 0 8 2 0 3 7.21 - King, Gary - - - - - - - - ---- - Lacombe, Laurent 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- 19 Llop, Guillaume 15 (10) 6 0 0 3 2 0 2 7.36 - McAlpine, Scott 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- 9 McCann, Andy 24 (9) 8 0 0 2 1 0 0 6.82 - McKenzie, David 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- 15 McLaughlin, David 3 (4) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6.71 22 McLaughlin, Graeme 29 2 0 0 3 5 0 1 7.59 33 McMillan, Scott 24 (3) 4 0 1 (1) 6 4 0 3 6.63 - McPherson, Craig 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- 28 Miller, John 30 (6) 5 0 0 8 4 0 1 6.89 16 Mitchell, Scott 50 14 0 5 (5) 6 0 0 5 7.22 5 Murray, Graeme 30 2 0 0 0 10 0 1 7.70 - Neil, Stephen 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- - O'Donnell, Mark 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- - Orr, Graham - - - - - - - - ---- - Oumouri, Gilles 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- - Paoli, Franck 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- - Poueys, Daniel - - - - - - - - ---- 46 Reid, John - - - - - - - - ---- 13 Renard, Frédéric 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- - Robert, Bruno - - - - - - - - ---- 4 Robertson, Stuart 24 (7) 3 0 0 5 4 0 1 6.77 - Soulas, Pierre - - - - - - - - ---- 8 Thomson, Ian 46 1 0 0 3 9 1 0 7.46 - Tissot, Jacques 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- 21 Tréguer, Olivier 10 (4) 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 7.00 - Trivino, Jean-Marc - - - - - - - - ---- - Troussier, David 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- - Vasseur, Daniel 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---- - Watson, David - - - - - - - - ---- 23 Wilson, Andy 10 (11) 0 0 0 3 1 0 0 6.43 </pre>