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Old 02-22-2014, 01:58 PM   #228
NoSkillz
College Benchwarmer
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
Sat. January 22, 2022

Barclays Premier League
Dover (12-7-5, 43 points, 4th) vs. Aston Villa (11-5-8, 38 points, 7th)
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK

Betting Odds: Dover: 6-4 (Favourites) Draw: 2-1 Aston Villa: 13-8
Past Meetings: 3W 1D 5L

Villa have been Premier League constants, having been in the top flight of English football since 1987/88. They are having a fine season and are threatening for a Continental position for next year, sitting in 7th on the table. Striker Joshua King leads the team with 9 goals but he is just as likely to be on the bench as he is in the starting lineup, as 10 of his 24 appearances have been from the bench. DC Kevin Renton is second with 7 goals so this is a dangerous set piece team, quite obviously.

Wayne Rooney is already back to being match fit, a bit of a surprise actually. Still, he'll be on the bench today as we go with the same one striker formation at home, with Giorgos Gesios alone up front and Zoltan Bardi sitting right behind him. We are in a bit of dire straits with injuries right now, with Shanon Andrea, Kostas Kalfas, Neil Cairney, Shaun Spall and Paul Moses all on the shelf. Young Emmerson Harvey is called up from the U18 team and will be on the bench today. Our two goal man from the Southampton match, Gianluca Bolis, is back in the starting lineup, as are GK Ingo Wilke and DC Claudio Contreras.

Dover: 4-4-2 DM (4-2-3-1) Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - Mancini, A. Rocca
AM - A. Bamba, Z. Bardi, G. Bolis
S - G. Gesios
Bench - J. Varga, J. Kuciak, P. Tjiuoro, E. Harvey, C. Murray, A. Zubizarreta, W. Rooney

Villa are in a flat 4-4-2 with King and Will Keane up front. I tell the team they can win this and tell Gesios I have faith in his ability.

3' - Rocca gets a great through ball into the area to Gesios and he's taken down just as he's about to pull the trigger. NO CALL?! At least call a dive there!

13' - Villa have a free kick and the ball squirts into an open area at the far edge of the area to Wilke's right. Joshua King gets there first and Rayane Hamon is in decent position but King gets onto his stronger right foot and sends a curling shot that seems to surprise Wilke and it's into the far corner. Kind of a weak goal there, which is very uncharacteristic of our fine goalkeeper but Villa is ahead. ASTON VILLA GOAL 0-1

23' - Bolis and Villa midfielder Anderson battle for a ball and just as Bolis comes away with it, Anderson goes in with studs up. STRAIGHT RED CARD!!! Villa is down to ten men for the remainder of the game.

26' - WHAT?!?! On an innocent looking goal kick by our team, Gesios fights for the ball and looks like he pushes the Villa defender. The ref calls him over and I'm expecting a yellow and Gesios is ALSO GIVEN A STRAIGHT RED! WHAT?!?!?!?! I've never seen that before on such an innocent looking foul. Maybe Gesios punched him? Now we're both down to ten men.

29' - We win a corner and Rocca's cross is headed toward goal by Rayane Hamon. It's off a defender and in! DOVER GOAL 1-1

34' - Villa are coming unglued. We start a quick counter deep in our territory, with Bamba switching flanks to Bolis. Our right midfielder dribbles down the sideline, pauses near the byline and sends in a high cross and there is Bamba, working all the way up field, heading the ball past Antonio Kraljevic and into the net! Two quick ones and we're ahead! DOVER GOAL 2-1

40' - We have another corner and Rocca again goes near post. I have Renato Gaucho up in an unfamiliar position in the box due to Gesios being sent off and he heads the ball toward goal. It goes off a Villa defender and past Kraljevic. An own goal but we're now ahead two! What a weird half! DOVER GOAL 3-1

43' - For whatever reason, Villa continues to go with two strikers up front with only ten men and that means they have only one central midfielder. We're seemingly dominating possession and it's Bamba again avoiding a tackle and sending it into the middle to Rocca. He one touches a pass through the defence and it's Gianluca Bolis striking the ball with fury past the under-fire Kraljevic and we have FOUR first half goals after initially falling behind! DOVER GOAL 4-1

45' - Wilke is finally called upon to make a save, this one on a header off a Villa corner kick.

HALFTIME - We're both at ten men and we're in complete control now, holding 60% of possession and outshooting Villa 11-9 (4-4 on target). I simply tell the team I'm pleased. I'll keep the same formation for now, with Bardi up front at striker, two wide attacking mids and two central mids.

Villa change to a tighter formation, with two MC's, an AMC and two strikers.

50' - Villa are coming out playing well with the new formation and Wilke makes a fine save in close against King.

56' - Damnit. Villa have a corner and Arinze Issah sends in a cross to dangerous DC Kevin Renton and he heads it forcefully past Wilke and into the net. That's Renton's eighth goal of the year already. ASTON VILLA GOAL 4-2

For some reason, Villa revert back to the 4-3-2 formation with two wide midfielders. They were causing hassles with that tighter formation.

65' - We have a free kick just outside the area and Rocca's blast goes right into the Villa wall. However, it pops over to Renato Gaucho and our left fullback, up on the play, dribbles in and shoots low past Kraljevic and into the net!!! Renato Gaucho's first goal of the year and I'd say the game is in our hands! DOVER GOAL 5-2

73' - I make a double substitution, taking out the brilliant Andrea Rocca and Zoltan Bardi and bringing in young Emmerson Harvey and Aitor Zubizarreta. I need to make sure Bardi and Wayne Rooney are good to go for our next game, since Giorgos Gesios will have a suspension to serve for his red card tonight and my other two strikers are both hurt. We also move to a counter attack mentality.

84' - Renato Gaucho is off and Jozef Varga comes in.

Wild game.

Dover 5 - 2 Aston Villa
Goals - Rayane Hamon (7.9), Arsene Bamba (8.2), Gianluca Bolis (8.8), Renato Gaucho (8.1), Mike Gaye OG
Assists - Andrea Rocca 2 (9.0), Renato Gaucho, Gianluca Bolis, Zoltan Bardi (7.3)
Man of the Match - Andrea Rocca
Other Dover Notables - Salim Loucif (7.2), Claudio Contreras (7.0)
Attendance - 14,293

Crazy stuff. We hold 59% of possession and outshoot them 20-16 (8-6 on target).

-- I look at the match report after the game and it turns out that Gesios elbowed their defender Phil Jones in the face and that's the reason for the straight red. I decide to appeal as I can't really be without Gesios for longer than a game with all of our injuries right now. The FA rule against my appeal so the one match suspension stands and I wait to see if they decide to extend it. At the very least, Gesios will miss our 4th Round FA Cup match at home against Manchester United. I fine Gesios two weeks wages for the indiscretion and he accepts it without incident.

-- Speaking of United, they are shocked 2-0 by Everton and that allows us to crawl within five points of second place. City win again and are starting to run away with the league, holding a six point advantage over second right now. 3rd place Liverpool also lose, getting beat 3-0 by Arsenal at Emirates Stadium. Arsenal are tied on points with us but we're ahead on goal differential. Arsenal do have a game in hand on us though. Liverpool are only two points ahead of us now in third.

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - STANDINGS
(ALL TEAMS HAVE PLAYED 25 GAMES UNLESS NOTED)

1. Manchester City - 57 points
2. Manchester United - 51 points
3. Liverpool - 48 points
4. Dover - 46 points
----------------------------------------------------
5. Arsenal - 46 points (24 games)
6. Reading - 44 points
7. Chelsea - 39 points
----------------------------------------------------
8. Aston Villa - 38 points
9. Tottenham - 38 points
10. Sheffield Wednesday - 35 points
11. Middlesbrough - 34 points
12. Everton - 33 points (24 games)
13. Sunderland - 30 points
14. Huddersfield - 29 points (23 games)
15. Newcastle - 28 points
16. Wolves - 25 points (24 games)
17. Blackburn - 21 points
----------------------------------------------------
18. Derby - 18 points
19. Southampton - 17 points (24 games)
20. Fulham - 17 points



Dover Reserve Team Update

-- We beat up on Bolton 6-0, getting goals from Giorgos Gesios, Carlo Cerbone, Samir Nasri, Cameron Murray, Dennis Kunz and Johnny Mardenborough.

-- Cerbone got hurt in the reserves game and will miss some time. That's four strikers on the shelf due to injury or suspension now.



League Cup

-- It's relegation candidates Wolves facing Huddersfield Town in the League Cup finals. Crazy.



Tutoring

-- I get positive reports from three tutoring sessions and one luke-warm report. Most important was Emmerson Harvey being delighted with the impact Andrea Rocca had on him but I get equally glowing reports for the rapport between Jonathan Adam & Samir Nasri and GK's Louis Read and Youssouf Sylla. The lukewarm report comes from young striker Gregoire Lambert, who was slightly disappointed in the linkup with Wayne Rooney but he did admit he learned a lot about the mental game from Rooney.



Transfer Window Fun

-- Man City come with a weak £8,500,000 offer for Rayane Hamon and I swiftly reject it. They are still interested in young Emmerson Harvey too. Napoli is also sniffing around Andrea Rocca - none of these players are going anywhere.

-- City sign yet ANOTHER striker, this time a good looking 29 year old Czech. They have Enrique, Jelle Hoegee, Yahia Traore and now this guy and they only play a one striker formation. There's going to be some turmoil there and hopefully one of their main guys gets upset and causes some unrest.



Next Up

-- We host Manchester United in the 4th round of the FA Cup.
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