Dover game

After initial huge disappointment........and a couple of beers!..........yes, would have taken a draw at the start, and certainly at 1-0 down.
But we are still in the Trophy although it will be very difficult on Tuesday. Chins up, we can still do this.

Just part of the Roller coaster. Draining day. Not sure how to feel but nothing to fear in Dover team. Arch will earn his money now and we will finish this.

That was the biggest shift in emotion at a game I've had, when Stearn scored (the beautiful 3rd) I was on cloud 9, when sodding Jake Reid scored the equaliser 8 minutes later I could have cried.

We were brilliant for 40 minutes of the second half, we can win this Tuesday. Up the City!

Oh and the coach is subdued!

Feeling devastated now. City were so dominant in the second half, it looked like it would be a really memorable win. City scored three cracking goals, but were denied the win by three very fortunate goals for Dover. I don't think anyone is to blame for that. I fear that Tuesday will be a very different game, Conference quality may show on what will certainly be a better pitch, the extra fitness from Dover's full time (ish) training could make a difference after today's tiring match and travelling, but at least Paine will be suspended for the replay, although Diallo won't be suspended until the semi final.

We were the better team again against higher opposition. The quality of our play in the second half was superb. It was Nick McCooties best game, but they.midfield of Allen, Diallo and Artus looked very classy. Yes they were down to 10 but we played like Brazil for 30 minutes. The substitutions were very brave but probably cost us in the end as we had no height in the box when they were lumping it in. Tuesday will be very tough and we will be disappointed not to take our chance but this team are also one for Dover to fear. We have come away from thform team of the premier undefeated after all.

I really hope we beat this lot. Never liked them, long ball merchants with big strong players who go down as if seriously injured whenever touched looking to get the opposition booked.
Clearly coachesd, appealing every single decision.
The official Dover fc match day feed was frankly embarrassing. The first goal was not offside apparently and the sending off was purely sekhani's fault for winding the guy up all half. He is Such a wind up merchant that Simpson.
I'd put them slightly above whitehawk in the evolutionary scale, ie just crawling out of the swamp.

Aagh 94th minute! Replay tues? Will be hurtling down m4 from heathrow arriving in bath just in time to see dancing in the streets of twerton!

Listening to the last 15 minutes was awful, and once it went to 3-2 did have that feeling of impending doom - agree about the commentator tempting fate, especially when he asked Bob Chester where they were going to cover the semi-final draw from!

Initially I thought that I would have felt better if we had lost instead of getting so close and then having the semi final snatched away, but as the evening has worn on I think the fact that we are still in the competition (and some alcohol!) has helped my earlier disappointment. As others have said, I would probably have taken a draw at the outset, although perhaps not after being 3-1 up and then still a goal in front with only a couple of minutes to go.

Tuesday will I think be very hard, and will need probably our best performance in the competition so far, but whatever the draw brings on Monday the reality is that if we do beat Dover then the final is possibly only one win away. I won't be at the replay because I am going to a gig in Bournemouth that day, but will be there in spirit and hoping to hear the City get the win they deserved today.

Everyone needs to read the Bath city thread on the Dovers fans forum ,right to the last comments.What an awful club we are.We really must win Tuesday night now.

Mcnulty wrote:I really hope we beat this lot. Never liked them, long ball merchants with big strong players who go down as if seriously injured whenever touched looking to get the opposition booked.
Clearly coachesd, appealing every single decision.
The official  Dover fc  match day feed was frankly embarrassing. The first goal was not offside apparently and the sending off was purely  sekhani's fault for winding the guy up all half. He is Such a wind up merchant that Simpson.
I'd put them slightly above whitehawk in the evolutionary scale, ie just crawling out of the swamp.

I suggest you don't take a look at their forum then, as your comments about them will seem quite mild

But I agree. To me Dover have always represented what non league football is about. A nice friendly club who have been our traditional rivals down the years. A few months with the big boys in Conf Prem has changed all that and it's now a pretty unpleasant place to visit. Why do clubs think fans want goals to be celebrated with that awful music, which even had to interrupt the announcing of the line ups? obviously their fans were delirious with their late fight back, but God did they want to ram it down our throats at the end. Some even taking the trouble to bawl their monotonous chant throught the door of the coach.

Bridgeyate wrote:Everyone needs to read the Bath city thread on the Dovers fans forum ,right to the last comments.What an awful club we are.We really must win Tuesday night now.

No our players and management could read it though, just in case they need any motivation. And as for their manager condemning our antics, perhaps he needs a word with his son who in the absence of any footballing talents, spent the whole match whining to the ref.

Well I'm glad they're upset because we really gave them a good game.their reaction just smacks of arrogance. How dare we not roll over and die. I for one want TP to be the most hostile place they have ever visited on Tuesday. The crowd needs to play it's part in putting them off their game. I thought we battled hard but played a really clean game. The only ones rolling around like stuck pigs were the team in white. If they didn't like the fact that we drew the refs attention to foul play by their team then they must be more desperate than I thought. I assume they are not used to the opposition standing up to them like we did. They were very physical all gone. I don't have a problem with that, it's just that we matched them. Something their prima donnas are obviously not used to.

To be fair their thread did contain some comments that acknowledged their player had to go and there was some faint praise for our 'half decent ' side but generally they were watching a different game in a parallel Dover universe to the game I saw.

I'll be there on Tuesday and encourage as many as can go to go. We need to build that atmosphere and drown out their useless drum.

Just seen this on Dover forum: "Their number 3 and 5, two of the Stefan Payne protagonists, didn't stop whinging at the ref or linesman all game". Wasn't able to be at the game so anyone know who played 3 and 5?

thomasmaxbaer wrote:Just seen this on Dover forum: "Their number 3 and 5, two of the Stefan Payne protagonists, didn't stop whinging at the ref or linesman all game". Wasn't able to be at the game so anyone know who played 3 and 5?

3 was Andy Gallinagh & 5 was Dan Ball. Not sure what they are on about as their number 4 didn't stop whinging all game!

Oh ok thank you

Whilst I appreciate a lot of us were disheartened post match, we have to remember that the Dover players won't be feeling so good about coming to Twerton Park on Tuesday night. Whilst they were "celebrating" with their fans at the end, on Monday morning they will not be looking forward to it so much. They are part-time too I understand, and I doubt their players will be staying over the night before (As our players did on Friday night). I was on the supporters coach on Saturday and can testifying its a long 4 and a half hours each way, so I assume most of their players are going to have to take a day / half day off work too. We still have a great chance and if we continue to play as we have in recent times, we'll be okay....we just need to rediscover that bit of defensive composure that we had against Alty.

Regarding fitness, I believe that Dover train at the same level as a full time team, but they train in the evenings to allow the players to persue other avenues, such as study or part-time work. So, their fitness should be at a higher level than City's. However, it is genarally the case that part time teams tend to struggle in midweek away games, as the players may have been at work earlier in the day, and so forth. Looking at Dover's record in midweek evening away games this season, they have played three and lost them all (3-0 at Braintree in August, 2-1 at Dartford in September and 3-2 at Nuneaton in October). Of course, City's record in midweek evening away games suggests that the theory doesn't neccessarily work (wins at Wealdstone, Poole Town and Shortwood United being the only three "full first team" such games - the other two being the win at Radstock and the defeat at Whitehawk).

Your fans all think our players are cheats and prima donnas, our fans all think your players are cheats and your management team are a disgrace. Football fans are completely blinkered and biased, yourselves included, I don't know why this is so surprising or offensive to you.

The way I saw it is I think we had the best of the first half, scored, then we really didn't deal with having 10 men. We played 5-4-0 for about 40 minutes FFS. I think we probably underestimated you a bit as well. I thought your goals were quality, and one fan said to me your performance was up there with the best teams to come to Crabble this season. We were very lucky to equalise, but we haven't had only 2 defeats in 23 games in all comps for no reason.

ayleshamwhite wrote:The way I saw it is I think we had the best of the first half, scored, then we really didn't deal with having 10 men. We played 5-4-0 for about 40 minutes FFS. I think we probably underestimated you a bit as well. I thought your goals were quality, and one fan said to me your performance was up there with the best teams to come to Crabble this season. We were very lucky to equalise, but we haven't had only 2 defeats in 23 games in all comps for no reason.

I'd agree with that summing up. I thought we competed ok in the first half but didn't look remotely like scoring. Why on earth Dover sat back so much in the second half amazed me, I know they had 10 men but you're not doing so well in the league for no reason. Personally I think your game plan is quite limited, in that a lot of the football is direct and react quickest to deflections/mistakes. Fair play though, it won you a promotion, you're doing brilliantly in the league above and it won you a replay yesterday because with Walsh and Hemmings off we could not cope with it. The collapse reminded me of one at Southport a couple of years ago when we went 1-0 up with about 10 minutes left but conceded twice from long throws at the end to lose. That was sickening but if we lose the replay this will feel a whole lot worse.

I won't go on about the antics of the opposition players as, let's face it, it's an over-used rant. I've heard about some comments made from Dover. They're claiming Sekani Simpson is a wind-up merchant and Andy Gallinagh was on at the ref all game. I can see if people get wound up with some of our players, but those two? One has six bookings in 300-odd games, the other hasn't been booked this season. I'd say they're decent role models, but I'm a City fan.

Was a bit surprised by some of the Dover fans at the game. At half-time I saw a bloke, late-30s maybe, telling his son (must have been 4 or 5) that they were going to stand near the Bath fans in the second half to wind them up. The poor kid was pleading to move to the other end to see his team attack but was told to 'shut up'. A few of their supporters were stood near our dugout all second half, shouting all-sorts. Ok, not the sort of thing I'd bother with as I'm 29 and don't really get much pleasure in shouting abuse at people who I don't even know. The problem was they weren't meant to be standing there - it's meant to be cordoned off. Amazed this wasn't addressed considering the attention to detail the club seem to go through for something as simple as obtaining a press pass. I was selfishly relieved Yuffie couldn't go, although ironically they had no issue with three others taking photos for Dover.

Back to the supporters, after Reid's goal those stood near the bar hardly celebrated in their favour. It was all about throwing abuse at our fans. Why? I've seen us come back brilliantly in years gone by but all I care about is celebrating our goal (or taking a photo of it!) were our fans riling Dover's during the game? I'm not tarring all of their fans with the same brush because that's not fair. I remember when we won at Chelmsford in the play-offs and I was absolutely embarrassed at some of ours rubbing it in their faces afterwards. Completely unnecessary against a club we don't have a rivalry with. It's one thing I deteste about sport. Not sure if Dover still have a chip on their shoulders about this promotion thing in 1990 or if they just have a few who are keen to wind up opposition fans/players every game. Yes I know, "it's a competition, not a tea dance" but we won at Bristol Rovers in front of a crowd nearly four times bigger than yesterday's, and Rovers' fans were superb. Maybe it's just me, probably too much of a daydreamer to think it's possible to show some respect in winning and losing. Not like I haven't come across it before and we will a number of times again.

Discipline will be the key in this replay. If Dover go down to 10 men again we stand a great chance because their tactics were limited during this period. We need to concentreate Absolutely gutted over what happened but been watching football long enough to realise anything is possible, good or bad. I'd say we've made more thrilling comebacks than thrown games like that away over the years.

Anyway, that's enough from me, I've got a programme to put together...

Yeah, the approach to the second half with ten men was incredibly frustrating. Our manager is rather cautious by nature, sometimes to our detriment, like playing strikerless for forty minutes at home in a cup tie. The more reasonable fans on our forum are acknowledging that we were comprehensively outplayed in the second half, rather than focusing on who was at fault in unsavoury incidents.

We've got a handful of dicks amongst our support, as have most clubs. That's not an excuse, just the way it is, and I thought the abuse of Bath players was well over the top at full-time. Myself, I celebrated that equaliser more than promotion last season, it was a wonderful if slightly undeserved moment. Wasn't the slightest interested in winding Bath fans up, but that's just me. I would wager that people who don't celebrate a 90th minute equaliser in a quarter-final aren't really Dover fans and are only interested in causing problems. One thing I will concur with is that if there were home supporters in the Bath end solely to antagonise away fans, then our stewards didn't do their jobs.

ayleshamwhite wrote:Myself, I celebrated that equaliser more than promotion last season, it was a wonderful if slightly undeserved moment.

I don't blame you. The adrenaline rush when you come back like that in a game is fantastic. We were 2-0 down at home to Darlington once and scored in the 95th and 96th minutes to draw.

And we experienced the same feeling at The Crabble, which I'll post in a moment...

the demon headmaster wrote:Well I'm glad they're upset because we really gave them a good game.their reaction just smacks of arrogance. How dare we not roll over and die. I for one want TP to be the most hostile place they have ever visited on Tuesday. The crowd needs to play it's part in putting them off their game. I thought we battled hard but played a really clean game. The  only ones rolling around like stuck pigs were the team in white. If they didn't like the fact that we drew the refs attention to foul play by their team then they must be more desperate than I thought. I assume they are not used to the opposition standing up to them like we did. They were very physical all gone. I don't have a problem with that, it's just that we matched them. Something their prima donnas are obviously not used to.

To be fair their thread did contain some comments that acknowledged their player had to go and there was some faint praise for our 'half decent ' side but generally they were watching a different game in a parallel Dover universe to the game I saw.

I'll be there on Tuesday and encourage as many as can go to go. We need to build that atmosphere and drown out their useless drum.

to quote Ofsted, an outstanding post.

ayleshamwhite wrote:Yeah, the approach to the second half with ten men was incredibly frustrating. Our manager is rather cautious by nature, sometimes to our detriment, like playing strikerless for forty minutes at home in a cup tie. The more reasonable fans on our forum are acknowledging that we were comprehensively outplayed in the second half, rather than focusing on who was at fault in unsavoury incidents.

We've got a handful of dicks amongst our support, as have most clubs. That's not an excuse, just the way it is, and I thought the abuse of Bath players was well over the top at full-time. Myself, I celebrated that equaliser more than promotion last season, it was a wonderful if slightly undeserved moment. Wasn't the slightest interested in winding Bath fans up, but that's just me. I would wager that people who don't celebrate a 90th minute equaliser in a quarter-final aren't really Dover fans and are only interested in causing problems. One thing I will concur with is that if there were home supporters in the Bath end solely to antagonise away fans, then our stewards didn't do their jobs.

Thanks for that, Aylsham. Are many Dover fans planning to travel on Tuesday? Although we are desperately disappointed at how things panned out at the end yesterday, we pride ourselves on welcoming away fans to Twerton and it would be good to see a decent turn out. Hopefully the replay will be remembered for footballing reasons, because yesterday left a sour taste.