[NoSkillz]

Sat. September 27, 2025

Barclays Premier League
Dover (5-0-0, 15 points, 2nd) vs. Hull (1-2-2, 5 points, 11th)
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, England

Betting Odds: Dover: 1-6 (Favourites) Draw: 5-1 Hull: 10-1
Past Meetings: 0W 0D 0L

I’m amazed to see this is the first time we’ve ever played Hull - obviously, we moved up in a year they got relegated but 15 years of play and no cup games either? That’s quite something! Hull was last in the Premier League in 2009/10, then spent seven years in the Championship before finishing last in 2016/17 and getting relegated to League 1. It took four years for them to get back to the Championship and another four years for them to get promoted back to the Premier League. They actually finished in 5th last year and won the Championship playoff to earn that promotion. Hull only brought in six players in the offseason at a paltry total of £2.3 million so I’d have to imagine they are favourites to suffer the quick drop. That said, they’ve been very competitive early, beating fellow promoted team Birmingham and earning draws against Liverpool and Newcastle. Not bad! Former Dover player Ross McLaughlin is their starting right fullback - he was a third string player on our club a few years back. Gary Jeffrey looks dangerous and has 6 goals in as many games thus far.

We’re back to a pretty full strength side today. We do have a HUGE Champions League matchup coming up midweek against the group’s weak link, Maribor, and we’ll need to score a million goals in that game to get back into the race to move on. That said, the game is on Wednesday so our players should be able to recover from this game in time for that pivotal matchup.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - Renato Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - M. Pedersen, B. Raab, Jose, G. Bolis
S - P. Moses, Chiquinho
Bench - Rafinha, R. Lopez, M. Mutesa, P. Secchi, N. Cairney, S. De la Vega, M. Lugo

Flat 4-4-2 for Hull, with Jeffrey up front with Martin Galik. McLaughlin starts at DR and Nicklas Johansson is their keeper. I expect a win against these guys!

6’ - We are SWARMING them early and already have a couple shots on goal and a crossbar. We continue to maintain possession and Jose feeds a little pass to Paul Moses on the outer edge of the area. He cuts right and sends a ROCKET of a shot that curls into the far corner of the goal. Now THAT is the Paul Moses I know! Great strike! DOVER GOAL 1-0

22’ - We continue to press and Claudio Contreras heads a ball over the Hull defence. There’s a race for it and Moses eludes a tackle from Ross McLaughlin, storms in on goal and sends a trademark low blast past Johansson and IN. I think I can safely say that Paul Moses IS BACK! DOVER GOAL 2-0

24’ - We force a turnover and send the ball to Moses at midfield. He’s on the left touchline, jukes a defender and off he goes on a two-on-two with Chiquinho. Moses draws a defender over, cuts back to the middle and from 20 yards out, sends a CURLING BLAST into the top right corner of the net. HOLY SHIT! MAGNIFICENT!!! Moses has the HAT TRICK! DOVER GOAL 3-0

26’ - This is NUTS! Moses gets the ball and again, SPEEDS THROUGH THE DEFENCE and in on goal. This time, the shot is saved by Johansson but the rebound pops right to the foot of Chiquinho and he simply taps it into the open net. DOVER GOAL 4-0

HALFTIME - VINTAGE PAUL MOSES! My goodness, it’s so fun to watch when he’s on his game and it looks like he’s finally BACK! We only edge them in possession but hold a 17-5 (9-2 on target) shot advantage. We are just clinical today and Hull is completely overmatched. I will use my substitutions early today to get everyone rested for the Champions League match coming up.

47’ - That didn’t take long. We have a corner and Benedikt Raab’s cross is headed home by Contreras. DOVER GOAL 5-0

52’ - No sense taking any chances, as we pull out the superb Paul Moses and bring in Manuel Lugo. “Standing ovation for Moses!”, screams the announcer. I also pull out Mads Pedersen and bring in Rafinha.

60’ - Our passing is beautiful, as we build up play into their end. We send a ball wide to Rafinha and from the byline, he sends in a high cross that is headed by Gianluca Bolis and it’s IN! That’s Bolis’ first of the year. DOVER GOAL 6-0

We pull out Benedikt Raab and bring in Paolo Secchi.

Superb!

Dover 6 - 0 Hull
Goals - Paul Moses 3 (9.7), Chiquinho (8.6), Claudio Contreras (9.3), Gianluca Bolis (8.6)
Assists - Paul Moses, Claudio Contreras, Jose (8.8), Benedikt Raab (8.9), Mads Pedersen (8.2)
Man of the Match - Paul Moses
Other Dover Notables - Ingo Wilke (7.5), Salim Loucif (8.2), Rayane Hamon (8.2), Renato Gaucho (8.3)
Attendance - 22,628

Wonderful performance, as we hold 54% of possession and outshoot them 34-9 (18-3 on target). Their keeper was BUSY!

-- Newcastle upset Arsenal 2-1 and Huddersfield SHOCK Chelsea 1-0. The Blues are really struggling early and are down to 15th!! City and United both win but we move into first place due to goal differential.


BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - STANDINGS
(ALL TEAMS HAVE PLAYED 6 GAMES UNLESS NOTED)

1. Dover - 18 points
2. Manchester City - 18 points
3. Manchester United - 16 points
4. Liverpool - 11 points
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5. Huddersfield - 10 points
6. Arsenal - 9 points (after 5 games)
7. Middlesbrough - 9 points
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Dover U18 Update

-- We defeat Woking 7-0, getting FOUR goals from Marcus Sowter and singles from Juan Jose Culebras, Andrew Hunter and Cheikh Gueye. Freddie Laird had two assists.



International Update

-- Michel Benard (France U20) and Fernando Estrada (Mexico U20 - one goal) represent their countries in the U20 World Cup.



Barclays Premier League Team of the Week

-- Ha. We have SEVEN players named to the team of the week: Claudio Contreras, Salim Loucif, Mads Pedersen, Jose, Benedikt Raab, Gianluca Bolis and Paul Moses.



Dover Injury Update

-- Arsene Bamba (torn hamstring) is a few weeks away from returning, as are Emmerson Harvey (hernia) and Andy Broomes (strained ankle ligaments).



Transfer Clause Money IN

-- Former defender Steve Reed plays his tenth game for Stoke so we receive an additional £100K due to a games played clause I built in.



Next Up

-- A pivotal road matchup in Champions League group play, as we play the group’s weak team Maribor, a tiny Slovenian club.