Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - FM – From Semi-Pro Minnows to Champions League Glory: Dover Athletic FC

NoSkillz · 12-29-2013, 01:32 AM

Wed. December 30, 2020

Barclays Premier League
Dover (12-2-6, 38 points, 4th) vs. Norwich (5-4-11, 19 points, 18th)
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK

Betting Odds: Dover: 4-6 (Favourites) Draw: 9-4 Norwich: 7-2
Past Meetings: 4W 1D 1L

Norwich have struggled since returning to the Premier League this year and are in the relegation zone with 19 points, one point from safety. We had our way with them earlier this year, destroying them 5-0 at their ground. They are on a poor run of form, having gone winless in five games but their last victory was a good one, a 2-1 home win over Liverpool.

Their best player thus far has been striker Paul Bryce, who has 8 goals in 19 appearances this year. Their second leading scorer, midfielder Liam Palmer, has only three goals. Their -23 goal differential is second-worst in the Premier League, with only last placed Bolton worse at -25.

We will field a very strong team today - midfield stalwart Andrea Rocca and central defender Paulus Tjiuoro, both of whom had big impacts in our last game against the Spurs, will be absent from the starting lineup due to being tired. Rocca will be on the bench and Tjiuoro will get the night off entirely. Thomas Andersen will play DC alongside Cristian Rodriguez, Jozef Varga is back in at left fullback and Liam Craig gets a rare start at AML in place of out-of-form Cameron Murray, who hasn't done much with normal starter Arsene Bamba out due to injury. The hero from the other night, young midfielder Mancini will start in the centre of the park with Neil Cairney. We'll go with our 4-2-3-1 formation.

Dover: 4-4-2 DM (4-2-3-1) Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - J. Varga, C. Rodriguez, T. Andersen, S. Loucif
M - Mancini, N. Cairney
AM - L. Craig, Z. Bardi, G. Bolis
S - G. Gesios
Bench - R. McLaughlin, O. Nicholas, D. Prately, A. Rocca, C. Murray, M. Prochazka, P. Simek

As expected, Norwich start in their customary flat 4-4-2 and will likely play a defensive style. Against big dogs, I tell the team that I expect a win today.

3' - Liam Craig runs down the left after a throw in and gets tripped as he's making his way into the area. Giorgos Gesios runs into the ball and sends it into the side netting from an awkward angle. Pretty good chance out of nothing to start.

4' - We turn the ball over in their end and they make their way up field. Cristian Rodriguez closes down a player and gets out of position and Norwich take advantage, with striker Chris Maguire getting behind our defines. Ingo Wilke is able to turn his hard shot over the net and force a corner. Nothing further would come from that.

8' - More sloppy play, as Mancini takes down a Norwich player just outside our box. The free kick is taken well and Wilke dives to send the ball away. We're getting outplayed early.

9' - We immediately move the ball up field and exchange numerous passes in front of their penalty area. Mancini sends the ball to the right to Neil Cairney and he sends a one-touch pass back to the left to Gianluca Bolis, who has made his way from the right wing all the way into the left centre of the area. He makes a great move to elude a sliding tackle, cuts to the net and right foots the ball into the short side of the net for the lovely goal! Beauty from Bolis! DOVER GOAL 1-0

13 - A wild play, as we win a corner, only to have it headed back to the original corner taker, Liam Craig. He sends a through ball into the area but it gets through to the keeper. It seems like a routine play but with rain falling heavily, the ball squirts loose and it looks like Giorgos Gesios is going to get it but their keeper recovers just in time to control the ball.

15' - Another period of extended possession in our favour ends with Zoltan Bardi sending Bolis clear but his blast from point blank range is blocked by Tommy Devlin, their under-fire goalkeeper. Great chance and great save from in close!

23' - Neil Cairney, who had a lovely assist on the Bolis goal, has given a couple away in sloppy fashion but makes up for it by springing Bardi on a partial break. Bardi's blast hits the goalpost and bounces harmlessly away. Another good chance.

41' - Cairney almost makes me eat my words. We win a free kick at midfield and Cristian Rodriguez makes a short pass to Cairney. He dribbles the ball all the way into the zone, past two defenders and whistles a shot JUST wide. That would have been a highlight reel goal for sure.

42' - Ugh. Rodriguez gets taken down on a horror tackle near midfield. Hilariously (in my eyes anyway), Neil Cairney comes and delivers a horror tackle of his own to the offender, with no fouls given for either indiscretion. Rodriguez isn't getting up and the ball is sent out of play. Hopefully he's okay.

HALFTIME - We're playing pretty well, with possession in our favour by a 54% to 46% margin and outshooting them 11-5 (3-3 on target). Still, a bit too close for comfort right now but no need to make any tactics changes. Rodriguez is banged up pretty badly but he doesn't look to have a long term injury so I will replace him in the second half with veteran Oliver Nicholas, who hasn't played in quite a while. I tell the team I'm pleased with their performance thus far and tell Nicholas I have faith in his abilities as he takes the pitch. I was hoping to bring Andrea Rocca in right after halftime but with the injury to Rodriguez, I'll be patient and wait until the 60 minute mark to make a decision there. If it's still 1-0, I'll likely bring Rocca in to bring some additional skill to the field.

56' - No highlights for the first ten minutes of the half but the first one goes to Norwich. The ball comes to their dangerous striker Paul Bryce and he eludes a poor tackle by Thomas Andersen and has the goal in his sights but shoots shockingly wide. Poor shot from Bryce - we're very lucky.

58' - On the ensuing goal kick, Gesios eventually wins a tackle and sprints through the defence like a hot knife through butter. His shot is turned aside and they are forced to concede a corner, one that they are able to clear to safety.

59' - On comes Andrea Rocca for Mancini.

65' - Thomas Andersen draws a yellow card for taking down Bryce. Andersen hasn't been very good in the highlights so far.

69' - Norwich win a corner and the resulting cross is headed off the woodwork and bounces over. Yikes.

78' - We move the ball around at midfield and NIcholas sends a long pass up the left side to Gesios, who hasn't been very sharp today. He uses his speed to gain some room past the defender and sends an absolute rocket from his wrong foot that nails the cross bar and ricochets away. Bolis gets the rebound and is tripped just outside the right side of the box. Rocca's free kick is headed wide by Thomas Andersen.

90' - We bring in Cameron Murray for Liam Craig and also move to a counter attacking philosophy for the final three minutes of injury time.

91' - We win a corner and Rocca sends the ball directly to Cairney who is lurking outside the area, He steps into a wicked low blast that the diving Devlin saves. Another great save by Devlin.

We continue to hold possession for the remainder of injury time to close things out with ease.

Dover 1 - 0 Norwich
Goals - Gianluca Bolis (7.5)
Assists - Neil Cairney (7.7)
Man of the Match - Salim Loucif (8.0)
Other Dover Notables - Ingo Wilke (7.0), Thomas Andersen (7.2), Jozef Varga (7.1)
Attendance - 15,750 (sell-out)

Possession and shots were both in our favour - 53% to 47% and 17-9 (5-4 on target) but I tell the players that the performance wasn't good enough despite the good result. Striker Giorgos Gesios got hit with a 6.4 rating…not much of a factor again but that's the way strikers are sometimes I guess. Loucif was a curious choice as man of the match, as he got skinned quite a lot during highlights.

-- We benefit from a Chelsea loss to Liverpool to move up to third on the table but United and City both continue their winning ways and are well ahead of the rest of the pack. We are actually level on points with Chelsea but lead due to a better goal differential. We gain a bit of breathing room as well as far as Champions League qualification goes, with a six point spread between us and 5th placed Arsenal.

YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME

-- Liverpool makes a bid for our Wonderkid midfielder Neil Cairney and it's not looking good for us…they offer us £25,408,000 - yes, that's right, over 25 MILLION POUNDS for our first year midfielder. The offer is immediately accepted by our board, as it meets the minimum release clause that was included in our contract with Cairney. This is a TERRIBLE turn of events for our club, as Cairney was going to be a staple of our midfield for years to come. More importantly, this will severely impact our hopes for continental qualification if he accepts a deal. Sigh. The waiting begins…I'm sure it won't take long.

-- In MUCH less important transfer news, Manchester United come calling for our youth striker Carlo Cerbone, offering a measly £28,000 for him. Denied.

-- Arsene Bamba has returned to full training after missing a month due to hernia surgery.

Transfer IN

-- The January transfer window opens and we welcome 18 year old Argentinian DC Claudio Contreras to Dover!

The towering Contreras, already 6' 6" tall, is a 3.0/5.0 rated prospect and already has some very impressive attributes. I plan on starting him right away in our upcoming match against Bristol City in the FA Cup but may put him with the U18s for awhile. My hope is that he pairs up with fellow Argentine Cristian Rodriguez to not only form a formidable pairing at the back but to also help settle Rodriguez in with the club. That said, Rodriguez's player page shows that he's still waiting for a player to be brought in…maybe he's looking for a veteran. Either way, it's a great addition to our depth and we are absolutely stacked at centre half now.

-- With the opening of the transfer window, I AM given the chance to change my expectations for the year in light of our impressive performance to date. I change my goals from "mid-table finish" to "top half finish" and that moves my wage budget to £350,000 from £325,000 and we are given another £12 million pounds for transfers! If Cairney accepts a contract with Liverpool, I will not hesitate to use whatever is necessary to fill that vacant midfielder position.

January Update

-- We have a pretty busy month on tap but thankfully not as busy as December! We are looking at four Premier League matchups this month: Bolton (away), Sheffield Wednesday (home), Chelsea (home) and Stoke (away) in addition to our 3rd round FA Cup match against Bristol City. If we defeat them, our fourth round match will take place at the end of the month.

-- I get positive training reports for Andrea Rocca and youth players Carlo Cerbone, Matt Hewitt and Abdallaye Kokaina. Kokaina is quickly falling down our depth chart - it's crazy to think that he was our first DC signing in the summer window and now he's an afterthought despite playing great for our U18 club this year. He's currently rated 2.0/4.0 by my assistant manager so he's still a great prospect.

-- Liverpool's Atila Turan wins the Barclays Premier League Player of the Month for December.

-- Lorenzo Sion from Huddersfield wins the Premier League Young Player of the Month.

-- Jurgen Klinsmann from Man United once again wins Manager of the Month in our league.

Year-End Awards

-- Now that 2020 is in the rearview mirror, a number of season ending awards are announced:

EUROPEAN STRIKER OF THE YEAR: Yaya Sanogo (Man United)
EUROPEAN GOALKEEPER OF THE YEAR: Emiliano Viviano (Man United)
EUROPEAN MIDFIELDER OF THE YEAR: Enrique (Man City)
EUROPEAN DEFENDER OF THE YEAR: Salah Abbes (Man City)
FIFA BALLON d'OR: Enrique (Man City)
WORLD PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Enrique (Man City)
FRENCH PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Yaya Sanogo (Man United)

January Board Confidence Update

-- The board continue to be delighted with my leadership qualities. Our stature increase is the highlight and Simon Rideout's departure continues to be the only disappointment. We made £2.2 million in profits last month.

-- Those bastards at Liverpool are now sniffing around Arsene Bamba, sending me an official inquiry into my transfer demands. I tell them to take a hike. Another offer also comes in for Gianluca Bolis, this time over £10 million pounds but I reject that as well.

Next Up

-- A third round FA Cup match at Bristol City

12-29-2013, 01:32 AM	#106
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	Wed. December 30, 2020 Barclays Premier League Dover (12-2-6, 38 points, 4th) vs. Norwich (5-4-11, 19 points, 18th) Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK Betting Odds: Dover: 4-6 (Favourites) Draw: 9-4 Norwich: 7-2 Past Meetings: 4W 1D 1L Norwich have struggled since returning to the Premier League this year and are in the relegation zone with 19 points, one point from safety. We had our way with them earlier this year, destroying them 5-0 at their ground. They are on a poor run of form, having gone winless in five games but their last victory was a good one, a 2-1 home win over Liverpool. Their best player thus far has been striker Paul Bryce, who has 8 goals in 19 appearances this year. Their second leading scorer, midfielder Liam Palmer, has only three goals. Their -23 goal differential is second-worst in the Premier League, with only last placed Bolton worse at -25. We will field a very strong team today - midfield stalwart Andrea Rocca and central defender Paulus Tjiuoro, both of whom had big impacts in our last game against the Spurs, will be absent from the starting lineup due to being tired. Rocca will be on the bench and Tjiuoro will get the night off entirely. Thomas Andersen will play DC alongside Cristian Rodriguez, Jozef Varga is back in at left fullback and Liam Craig gets a rare start at AML in place of out-of-form Cameron Murray, who hasn't done much with normal starter Arsene Bamba out due to injury. The hero from the other night, young midfielder Mancini will start in the centre of the park with Neil Cairney. We'll go with our 4-2-3-1 formation. Dover: 4-4-2 DM (4-2-3-1) Control GK - I. Wilke D - J. Varga, C. Rodriguez, T. Andersen, S. Loucif M - Mancini, N. Cairney AM - L. Craig, Z. Bardi, G. Bolis S - G. Gesios Bench - R. McLaughlin, O. Nicholas, D. Prately, A. Rocca, C. Murray, M. Prochazka, P. Simek As expected, Norwich start in their customary flat 4-4-2 and will likely play a defensive style. Against big dogs, I tell the team that I expect a win today. 3' - Liam Craig runs down the left after a throw in and gets tripped as he's making his way into the area. Giorgos Gesios runs into the ball and sends it into the side netting from an awkward angle. Pretty good chance out of nothing to start. 4' - We turn the ball over in their end and they make their way up field. Cristian Rodriguez closes down a player and gets out of position and Norwich take advantage, with striker Chris Maguire getting behind our defines. Ingo Wilke is able to turn his hard shot over the net and force a corner. Nothing further would come from that. 8' - More sloppy play, as Mancini takes down a Norwich player just outside our box. The free kick is taken well and Wilke dives to send the ball away. We're getting outplayed early. 9' - We immediately move the ball up field and exchange numerous passes in front of their penalty area. Mancini sends the ball to the right to Neil Cairney and he sends a one-touch pass back to the left to Gianluca Bolis, who has made his way from the right wing all the way into the left centre of the area. He makes a great move to elude a sliding tackle, cuts to the net and right foots the ball into the short side of the net for the lovely goal! Beauty from Bolis! DOVER GOAL 1-0 13 - A wild play, as we win a corner, only to have it headed back to the original corner taker, Liam Craig. He sends a through ball into the area but it gets through to the keeper. It seems like a routine play but with rain falling heavily, the ball squirts loose and it looks like Giorgos Gesios is going to get it but their keeper recovers just in time to control the ball. 15' - Another period of extended possession in our favour ends with Zoltan Bardi sending Bolis clear but his blast from point blank range is blocked by Tommy Devlin, their under-fire goalkeeper. Great chance and great save from in close! 23' - Neil Cairney, who had a lovely assist on the Bolis goal, has given a couple away in sloppy fashion but makes up for it by springing Bardi on a partial break. Bardi's blast hits the goalpost and bounces harmlessly away. Another good chance. 41' - Cairney almost makes me eat my words. We win a free kick at midfield and Cristian Rodriguez makes a short pass to Cairney. He dribbles the ball all the way into the zone, past two defenders and whistles a shot JUST wide. That would have been a highlight reel goal for sure. 42' - Ugh. Rodriguez gets taken down on a horror tackle near midfield. Hilariously (in my eyes anyway), Neil Cairney comes and delivers a horror tackle of his own to the offender, with no fouls given for either indiscretion. Rodriguez isn't getting up and the ball is sent out of play. Hopefully he's okay. HALFTIME - We're playing pretty well, with possession in our favour by a 54% to 46% margin and outshooting them 11-5 (3-3 on target). Still, a bit too close for comfort right now but no need to make any tactics changes. Rodriguez is banged up pretty badly but he doesn't look to have a long term injury so I will replace him in the second half with veteran Oliver Nicholas, who hasn't played in quite a while. I tell the team I'm pleased with their performance thus far and tell Nicholas I have faith in his abilities as he takes the pitch. I was hoping to bring Andrea Rocca in right after halftime but with the injury to Rodriguez, I'll be patient and wait until the 60 minute mark to make a decision there. If it's still 1-0, I'll likely bring Rocca in to bring some additional skill to the field. 56' - No highlights for the first ten minutes of the half but the first one goes to Norwich. The ball comes to their dangerous striker Paul Bryce and he eludes a poor tackle by Thomas Andersen and has the goal in his sights but shoots shockingly wide. Poor shot from Bryce - we're very lucky. 58' - On the ensuing goal kick, Gesios eventually wins a tackle and sprints through the defence like a hot knife through butter. His shot is turned aside and they are forced to concede a corner, one that they are able to clear to safety. 59' - On comes Andrea Rocca for Mancini. 65' - Thomas Andersen draws a yellow card for taking down Bryce. Andersen hasn't been very good in the highlights so far. 69' - Norwich win a corner and the resulting cross is headed off the woodwork and bounces over. Yikes. 78' - We move the ball around at midfield and NIcholas sends a long pass up the left side to Gesios, who hasn't been very sharp today. He uses his speed to gain some room past the defender and sends an absolute rocket from his wrong foot that nails the cross bar and ricochets away. Bolis gets the rebound and is tripped just outside the right side of the box. Rocca's free kick is headed wide by Thomas Andersen. 90' - We bring in Cameron Murray for Liam Craig and also move to a counter attacking philosophy for the final three minutes of injury time. 91' - We win a corner and Rocca sends the ball directly to Cairney who is lurking outside the area, He steps into a wicked low blast that the diving Devlin saves. Another great save by Devlin. We continue to hold possession for the remainder of injury time to close things out with ease. Dover 1 - 0 Norwich Goals - Gianluca Bolis (7.5) Assists - Neil Cairney (7.7) Man of the Match - Salim Loucif (8.0) Other Dover Notables - Ingo Wilke (7.0), Thomas Andersen (7.2), Jozef Varga (7.1) Attendance - 15,750 (sell-out) Possession and shots were both in our favour - 53% to 47% and 17-9 (5-4 on target) but I tell the players that the performance wasn't good enough despite the good result. Striker Giorgos Gesios got hit with a 6.4 rating…not much of a factor again but that's the way strikers are sometimes I guess. Loucif was a curious choice as man of the match, as he got skinned quite a lot during highlights. -- We benefit from a Chelsea loss to Liverpool to move up to third on the table but United and City both continue their winning ways and are well ahead of the rest of the pack. We are actually level on points with Chelsea but lead due to a better goal differential. We gain a bit of breathing room as well as far as Champions League qualification goes, with a six point spread between us and 5th placed Arsenal. YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME -- Liverpool makes a bid for our Wonderkid midfielder Neil Cairney and it's not looking good for us…they offer us £25,408,000 - yes, that's right, over 25 MILLION POUNDS for our first year midfielder. The offer is immediately accepted by our board, as it meets the minimum release clause that was included in our contract with Cairney. This is a TERRIBLE turn of events for our club, as Cairney was going to be a staple of our midfield for years to come. More importantly, this will severely impact our hopes for continental qualification if he accepts a deal. Sigh. The waiting begins…I'm sure it won't take long. -- In MUCH less important transfer news, Manchester United come calling for our youth striker Carlo Cerbone, offering a measly £28,000 for him. Denied. -- Arsene Bamba has returned to full training after missing a month due to hernia surgery. Transfer IN -- The January transfer window opens and we welcome 18 year old Argentinian DC Claudio Contreras to Dover! The towering Contreras, already 6' 6" tall, is a 3.0/5.0 rated prospect and already has some very impressive attributes. I plan on starting him right away in our upcoming match against Bristol City in the FA Cup but may put him with the U18s for awhile. My hope is that he pairs up with fellow Argentine Cristian Rodriguez to not only form a formidable pairing at the back but to also help settle Rodriguez in with the club. That said, Rodriguez's player page shows that he's still waiting for a player to be brought in…maybe he's looking for a veteran. Either way, it's a great addition to our depth and we are absolutely stacked at centre half now. -- With the opening of the transfer window, I AM given the chance to change my expectations for the year in light of our impressive performance to date. I change my goals from "mid-table finish" to "top half finish" and that moves my wage budget to £350,000 from £325,000 and we are given another £12 million pounds for transfers! If Cairney accepts a contract with Liverpool, I will not hesitate to use whatever is necessary to fill that vacant midfielder position. January Update -- We have a pretty busy month on tap but thankfully not as busy as December! We are looking at four Premier League matchups this month: Bolton (away), Sheffield Wednesday (home), Chelsea (home) and Stoke (away) in addition to our 3rd round FA Cup match against Bristol City. If we defeat them, our fourth round match will take place at the end of the month. -- I get positive training reports for Andrea Rocca and youth players Carlo Cerbone, Matt Hewitt and Abdallaye Kokaina. Kokaina is quickly falling down our depth chart - it's crazy to think that he was our first DC signing in the summer window and now he's an afterthought despite playing great for our U18 club this year. He's currently rated 2.0/4.0 by my assistant manager so he's still a great prospect. -- Liverpool's Atila Turan wins the Barclays Premier League Player of the Month for December. -- Lorenzo Sion from Huddersfield wins the Premier League Young Player of the Month. -- Jurgen Klinsmann from Man United once again wins Manager of the Month in our league. Year-End Awards -- Now that 2020 is in the rearview mirror, a number of season ending awards are announced: EUROPEAN STRIKER OF THE YEAR: Yaya Sanogo (Man United) EUROPEAN GOALKEEPER OF THE YEAR: Emiliano Viviano (Man United) EUROPEAN MIDFIELDER OF THE YEAR: Enrique (Man City) EUROPEAN DEFENDER OF THE YEAR: Salah Abbes (Man City) FIFA BALLON d'OR: Enrique (Man City) WORLD PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Enrique (Man City) FRENCH PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Yaya Sanogo (Man United) January Board Confidence Update -- The board continue to be delighted with my leadership qualities. Our stature increase is the highlight and Simon Rideout's departure continues to be the only disappointment. We made £2.2 million in profits last month. -- Those bastards at Liverpool are now sniffing around Arsene Bamba, sending me an official inquiry into my transfer demands. I tell them to take a hike. Another offer also comes in for Gianluca Bolis, this time over £10 million pounds but I reject that as well. Next Up -- A third round FA Cup match at Bristol City __________________ MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY - EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo Last edited by NoSkillz : 12-29-2013 at 01:34 AM.