Dover game

Just read the dovers fans forum as suggested. ayleshamwhite  seems thoroughly sensible but is very much in a minority.
Totally deluded, the whole world is against us tripe.
If Sekhani has developed a nasty streak I am delighted. We have become, overnight a team of streetwise thugs.

Mellor should have been sent off and dover awarded a penalty. Our whole bench should be banned from every ground in the country, our commentators are biased and pompous. They used to like us (when they beat us every year) but we have become a thoroughly nasty club.
We will probably roll over and lose Tuesday night in which case they will like us again!!  

ayleshamwhite wrote: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.

To be honest aylesham, I know fans are biased but it is both surprising and offensive because we think we are a nice club. I might be totally deluded in this but I don't think our players are cheats ; I think a lot of yours are and I think it is coached.
We aren't good at holding onto leads (as you saw Saturday!), we aren't good at winding the clock down, we don't try and get opposition players in trouble, and our bench ,who are apparently a disgrace, we rarely actually see or hear  during games.

We pride ourselves on being a welcoming club, with a bit of class and sportsmanship who try to play good football, not always that successfully. perhaps I am being totally naïve and blinkered but I do find it offensive and incorrect if you think we are cheats and that the management team are disgrace.

Some utter nonsense written on this thread by one or two Bath fans.

I am sure our players and fans would get equal motivation reading this thread as it is claimed you would from studying our forum.

You have psyched yourself up into a bit of a siege mentality to motivate yourselves, painting us as "arrogant" etc when no-one was expecting you to be pushovers and indeed I thought the build up was quite good natured.

The truth is that your management clearly set out to cynically get Stefan Payne sent off. The bad vibes originate from yourselves and the "professional underdogs" mindset you have brought to the table. I have never heard a Crabble crowd so angry - or celebrate so passionately as when the third went in.

I think that ayleshamwhite has been very even-handed on here (as well as stillman junior in return) and, as they say, football supporters can be fairly one-eyed to a lesser or greater degree - that is basically the essence of football support - and, yes, all have dicks in our support but, having supported a club with the most amount at Cardiff, Bath City are not even in the same ball park. I agree that Rovers were generous and even Wealdstone, who had a reason to complain about Mellor, were generous. Also, ayleshamwhite has come on here and been very fair - and he isn't saying our players are cheats/management a disgrace, he is pointing out that others are - and he can't be the only one at Dover that is.

I wasn't there so can't really comment but two things do stand out in the commentary and reports since. Both have been mentioned but Simpson is the last player to kick off over anything - a player I hardly see foul let alone get carded - and Howells and Britton are the least demonstrative managers I have seen since Dave Jones, to the point of being criticised for it regularly on here. The criticism of them, unlike that of Mellor by the Wealdstone supporters, rings completely untrue.

I can't comment on the tactics obviously but it is fairly obvious that, at 1-0 up and 1-1, a ten man side is going to waste time. It's unfortunate but it's football and there is a lot at stake here.

Crabblemann wrote:
The truth is that your management clearly set out to cynically get Stefan Payne sent off.

Really? If that's the truth, what's your evidence?

Would you like to comment on the accusation that Kinnear (the player) spent the whole match in the ref's face demanding the same of our players?

As I say, Crabble, if it wasn't Simpson or our management team then I wouldn't be so convinced but these aren't the droids you're looking for.

Interestingly, ayleshamwhite hasn't mentioned any winding up of the ref at all. Are you suggesting that your player didn't throw a punch or that he shouldn't have been sent off for it?

Mcnulty wrote:

ayleshamwhite wrote: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.

To be honest aylesham, I know fans are biased but it is both surprising and offensive because we think we are a nice club. I might be totally deluded in this but I don't think our players are cheats ; I think a lot of yours are and I think it is coached.
We aren't good at holding onto leads (as you saw Saturday!), we aren't good at winding the clock down, we don't try and get opposition players in trouble, and our bench ,who are apparently a disgrace, we rarely actually see or hear  during games.

We pride ourselves on being a welcoming club, with a bit of class and sportsmanship who try to play good football, not always that successfully. perhaps I am being totally naïve and blinkered but I do find it offensive and incorrect if you think we are cheats and that the management team are disgrace.

I might have missed the point, but I think aylesham was saying that it's just a common thing amongst football fans that the winning opposition are often labelled cheats/time-wasters etc. If either side are a goal ahead on Tuesday they'll be keeping the ball in the corner and taking an age over every throw-in, going down easily for treatment and so on. Frustrating as hell but sadly it's commonplace.

stillman, I am getting slightly confused now myself but the point I was trying to make is that I don't think we are cheats. I think we are extremely poor at any form of gamesmanship and therefore don't tend to indulge in it, certainly never successfully!

I don't think we are any worse than any other team, no. Saturday was the first outfield player we'd had sent off since 2013. Having stood near our dugout a few times this season, yes, they have a go at the officials a bit. Stand-out any worse than another club? Not that I'm aware of. Some clubs/managers have a reputation for this sort of thing and I don't think we fall into it.

My God, this thread has turned into something from a school playground.
He did this, he did that, they said this, they said that.
What the hell does it matter, it's a game of football.

Segregation on Tuesday I guess

Not segregation as far as I'm aware

Stop taking Dover's side on all this

Agreed, all getting a bit silly. the question is who are we going to target to get sent off from Dover on Tuesday night? Suggest we get our hatchet man sekhani 'chopper' Simpson To man mark whoever arch and aidie decide 'needs to go'.

Do you really think players read the crap written on here to get themselves motivated for a game?

It's official - we are a nasty team - This is from the F A trophy site at FA headquarters


Battling Bath City went so close to causing an upset after their special plan to unsettle Dover Athletic star man Stefan Payne worked a treat.

The 12-goal striker started the first half a hero as he latched on to a loose ball to hammer the hosts into the lead with just seven minutes gone.

But City's repeated attempts to unsettle the former Fulham and Gillingham man were successful and he was shown a red card at the end of the half for reacting to some of the rough treatment given to him.

That levelled the playing field for the side from the league below, and after a period of sustained pressure, Andy Gallinagh drilled them level with a pretty left-footed effort that nestled in the corner of the net.

They had Dover on the ropes and landed another punch when Ross Stearn smacked home to put the Conference South in the lead with just 20 minutes remaining.

Dover did hit the post but their 10 men began to tire and Stearn appeared to have killed the tie with an unstoppable effort that flew into the top corner of the net to make it 3-1 with less than ten minutes left on the clock.

But two late goals from Conference Premier side Dover forced a replay. Richard Orlu made it 3-2 as the clock approached 90 minutes, and then Jake Reid headed an equaliser in the fourth minute of stoppage time; the teams will clash again at Twerton Park on Tuesday at 7.45pm.

Read more at http://www.thefa.com/news/competitions/fa-trophy/2015/feb/dover-weather-early-bath-storm-to-secure-replay#UBwG1CDVaHJ85xaL.99

I thought that was a spoof before clicking on the link. But it's made it on the OFFICIAL FA site?! God knows what they would have written had the site been about for Maradona's Hand of God.

I hope we have a good strong ref tomorrow - do we get the same ref. as Saturday?

Marc Monitor wrote:Interestingly, ayleshamwhite hasn't mentioned any winding up of the ref at all. Are you suggesting that your player didn't throw a punch or that he shouldn't have been sent off for it?

You've missed my point, I don't think I ever questioned the dismissal. To answer your question, yes Stefan Payne deserved to be sent off, he looked to have thrown a punch. But the point I was making was that I'm not really interested in getting into a debate where Dover fans think Bath players are cheats and Bath fans think Dover players are cheats. The truth is that at particular times players from both sides behaved questionably but football fans are blinkered and choose only to see what fits their own team's narrative. The most reasonable view of the game is that our manager took far too long to react to having 10 men and the result was being totally outplayed for 40 minutes in the second half. We were very lucky that the appropriate changes were made just in time to equalise, and we shouldn't underestimate Bath again on Tuesday.

Comrade, our supporter's coach is being kindly subsidised by a private donation so it should fill, I'd have guessed that there will be roughly 100 Dover fans there when you include car, train and exiles. I'll be there, my third visit to TP, looking forward to it.

Good, it should create a good atmosphere tomorrow - and let's hope it's a friendly one.

As for the appalling website run by the FA - are reports like that not vetted? For an organisation which is only too quick to bleat about others bringing the game into disrepute, they need to get their own house in order....

my thoughts entirely

It is funny that the report has decided to concentrate so much on Payne's sending off that it missed a debate for offside for the first goal, Andy Gallinagh's goal was with his right-foot (then again I was behind a camera lens so could be wrong...) and we had a player sent off at the end.

It's a bit like a blog entry written by a Dover fan - not saying what has been written is libelous or anything, I just think it should be kept on things like forums/unofficial websites. Considering the FA are keen to fine a player on the spot for posting on Social Media that they've just spotted a bloke with funny eyebrows, or they laughed when a dog took longer than normal to find a ball, it's amazing they're perfectly happy to publish something like that.

It looks like the report has been amended.

Where it originally came from, I don't know!

I bet someone has had a right shoeing at FA towers

Furious of Southdown (aka Phil Weaver) complained and got it changed.

Unsurprising I would say that the FA failed to produce an accurate report of the game. But so what if we targeted their hot headed player? sounds like a well executed plan to me. The guy was a mug for retaliating and got his just deserts.

Looking forward to a fully charged encounter tomorrow. Up for this one and of course the lads will be too.  Can't imagine the dover lot will be looking foward to it greatly. UTC

Ayleshamwhite, I wasn't having a pop at you. I was pointing out that, as a even-handed Dover supporter, you hadn't suggested that The sending off was unfair.