[NoSkillz]

Sat. January 31, 2026

FA Cup - Fourth Round
Reading (15th in the Premier League) vs. Dover (1st in Premier League)
The Madejski Stadium, Reading, England

Betting Odds: Reading: 3-1 Draw: 2-1 Dover: 4-5 (Favourites)
Past Meetings: 12W 2D 3L

Reading are having a poor season in the league but are gaining some ground lately, going four games without a loss and have only lost two of their last nine. Hani Megahed leads the club, as usual, with 14 goals while fellow striker Cees Duarte has 10. Beyond that, there’s nothing much there. They do have former Dover defender Kostas Zagos and midfielder Simon Woodman on the roster as well.

This would normally be a “first-teamers” game but I’m making a few changes. Manuel Lugo will start up front alongside Paul Moses, as we give Chiquinho another night off. He was superb in our reserves match, scoring six goals (!!) but he’s struggled mightily lately and Lugo definitely deserves a chance the way he’s been playing lately. I’m also giving Chris Davies the start in goal.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - C. Davies
D - Renato Gaucho, M. Mutesa, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, B. Raab, Jose, G. Bolis
S - P. Moses, M. Lugo
Bench - Rafinha, A. Torres, R. Lopez, E. Harvey, N. Cairney, S. De la Vega, A. Broomes

Reading are in a flat 4-4-2 with Duarte and Megahed up front. Zagos is at DR and Jan Obermajer is in goal. No fooling around, I expect a win today.

26’ - We are playing well in the early goings and generating lots of chances but Reading strike first, as Megahed takes a pass with his back to the goal, turns and fires from the top of the area and it’s a missile past Davies and in. Ugh. READING GOAL 0-1

HALFTIME - Boy, we just continue to struggle. Reading hold 52% of possession while we outshoot them 15-3 (2-2 on target). We just aren’t hitting the net. Moses looks terrible so far. I read the riot act in the room - I’m tired of this.

68’ - My god we can’t do anything! I pull off Manuel Lugo and Arsene Bamba and bring in Andy Broomes and Rafinha.

80’ - We move to an overload mentality.

This is incredible. We are OUT of the competition and this is a legitimate slump.

Reading 1 - 0 Dover
Goals -
Assists -
Man of the Match - Jan Obermajer (Reading GK - 9.1)
Other Dover Notables - Salim Loucif (7.4), Mwemere Mutesa (7.2)
Attendance - 19,362

Repulsive! We are out and will not defend our FA Cup title. Reading held 51% of the ball while we outshoot them 23-5 (6-3 on target). Their keeper was man of the match and it was a much deserved honour. We are not scoring goals anymore and we need a major shakeup here - I say as much in the post game press conference and player morale takes a major hit, as expected.



Dover U18 Update

-- Fernando Estrada bags four goals and we get singles from fellow strikers Bakary Kone and Marcus Sowter in a 6-0 win over Brentford in U18 action. Kone also added two assists in the win.



February Update

-- We have four Premier League games coming up this month, with matches against Hull (away), Reading (home), Sheffield United (home) and Newcastle (away). We also begin Champions League knockout round with a final 16 match against Sampdoria in Italy. So only five matches this month - very quiet now that we’re out of the FA Cup. GRRRRR.

-- We get positive reports in training for Rafinha, Mwemere Mutesa and U18’ers Domenico Fracassetti, Jordan Tandy and Giuseppe Forti. A negative report comes in for Mads Pedersen but I’ll go easy on him, since he was injured all month.



January Awards

-- Man United striker Yaya Sanogo scored five goals in four games to win player of the month honours.

-- One of the fine stories of this year for us has been the play of 21 year old central defender Mwemere Mutesa and he is names as young player of the month in the Premier League. Fellow DC Adrian Torres finished second after playing a starting role most of the month.

-- Jurgen Klinsmann wins Manager of the Month honours and I finish in second despite our recent struggles.



Transfer News

-- And here it is - for the first time, someone comes after Paul Moses and it’s bloody Jose Mourinho and Manchester City, offering £20,000,000 including incentives. I can’t reject it fast enough, of course.

-- The window closes a couple days later with no further offers.



Board Confidence Update

-- The board are delighted with the leadership qualities I’m demonstrating. Our 6-0 win over Everton is the highlight while our disappointing exit in the FA Cup is the main negative.

-- We lost £736,000 last month.



Champions League Registration

-- We have registration for the knockout stages of the Champions League and I add Arsene Bamba to the roster while taking out veteran striker Zoltan Bardi.



Next Up

-- We are back in action in the Premier League with a road matchup against Hull City.