[NoSkillz]

Sat. March 26, 2022

Barclays Premier League
Blackburn (5-6-20, 21 points, 18th) vs. Dover (17-8-6, 59 points, 5th)
Ewood Park, Blackburn, UK

Betting Odds: Blackburn: 4-1 Draw: 5-2 Dover: 4-7 (Favourites)
Past Meetings: 4W 1D 2L

Blackburn are five points from safety and need to start winning if they have any chance of staying afloat in the Premier League. This is a poor team and we have to take care of business today. Striker Sergi leads Blackburn with 10 goals in 32 appearances.

We're without three players today due to international commitments, most importantly Arsene Bamba. Cameron Murray will start in his place. Jozef Kuciak will take over at right fullback while Salim Loucif recovers from his hamstring injury. Paul Moses and Wayne Rooney start up front again today and I have Shanon Andrea on the bench. We'll stick with our control mentality being big favourites.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, J. Kuciak
M - C. Murray, N. Cairney, A. Rocca, G. Bolis
S - P. Moses, W. Rooney
Bench - J. Varga, R. McLaughlin, Mancini, S. Nasri, A. Zubizarreta, Z. Bardi, S. Andrea

Blackburn are also in a flat 4-4-2 and have Sergi and Alexandre Deiana up front and Stephen Brown in goal. I tell the team they can win this and pull aside Murray to say I have faith in him.

6' - Not a great start. Blackburn have most of the possession and Rooney gets a yellow card.

13' - Horrible. Deiana gets through our defence easily and Wilke has to stop a breakaway. We haven't shown up to play…very disappointing.

14' - Now Cameron Murray gets stripped of the ball and brings down a man. Yellow card. This is ridiculous that we aren't showing up against such a weak team.

I change to an attacking mentality to try to wake these guys up.

29' - We've generated nothing whatsoever but finally get a break. Bolis storms down the right sideline and crosses into the box. Two Blackburn defenders watch it fly by and right on the foot of Murray and he slams it home. First chance and we convert. DOVER GOAL 1-0

We move back to a control mentality.

36' - Wonderful. Cameron Murray is taken down and he's hurt. With Arsene Bamba away on international duty, I have to bring in Samir Nasri.

40' - It's Bolis again streaking down the right, as the left fullback just can't keep up with his pace. Again he crosses and this time it's Paul Moses all alone and he puts the ball past Brown and into the net. We don't deserve this lead but we'll take it. DOVER GOAL 2-0

HALFTIME - Poor effort, as we hold 51% of possession but are outshot 10-3 (2-2 on target). We're fortunate to have converted both of our only chances. I try to encourage the team at half.

59' - Moses looks like the only guy who has shown up, as he gets two great chances but Brown makes the saves.

I bring in Shanon Andrea and take out Wayne Rooney.

71' - Andrea gets his first chance, beating Blackburn's defender to a headed ball but Brown makes a fine save.

74' - Mancini is on for Andrea Rocca.

76' - We cause a turnover and Nasri sends the ball up to Moses. He weaves toward the penalty area and shoots but it deflects off a Blackburn defender and right on the golden foot of Shanon Andrea. Our leading scorer nails it into the back of the net in his first game back from injury. Oh, how I've missed you Shanon! DOVER GOAL 3-0

88' - Gianluca Bolis with a yellow.

We're lucky Blackburn suck.

Blackburn 0 - 3 Dover
Goals - Cameron Murray (7.4), Paul Moses (7.8), Shanon Andrea (7.3)
Assists - Gianluca Bolis 2 (8.1), Samir Nasri (7.0)
Man of the Match - Gianluca Bolis
Other Dover Notables - Ingo Wilke (7.2), Jozef Kuciak (7.4), , Rayane Hamon (7.6), Claudio Contreras (7.3), Renato Gaucho (7.4), Neil Cairney (7.1)
Attendance - 16,701

We definitely upped our game a bit in the second half and ended up with 52% of possession and a 16-10 (6-2 on target) shot advantage. They had no shots in the second half. So, so nice to have Shanon Andrea back but we had very little "flow" out there today and while my assistant didn't talk about overconfidence, it was apparent that our guys were looking ahead to our next game…Barcelona in Champions League 2nd Knockout Round play.

-- Cameron Murray just suffered a dead leg and will be ok by next week.

-- Man City knock off Tottenham and United beat Arsenal in a key match for our Champions League hopes for next year. Arsenal won a make up game mid-week against Huddersfield so now we're two points ahead of them with an equal amount of games played. Liverpool win 4-1 over Aston Villa to stay two points ahead of us.

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

1. Manchester City - 73 points
2. Manchester United - 65 points
3. Liverpool - 64 points
4. Dover - 62 points
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5. Arsenal - 60 points
6. Chelsea - 56 points
7. Reading - 52 points (7 games left)
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Clause Money IN

-- Former striker Gerardo Escobar reaches ten goals with Sheffield Wednesday and that means they have to pay us an additional £500,000. Free money is cool.



Dover Reserves Update

-- We didn't have a Reserves game scheduled for a couple weeks but I need to get Shanon Andrea some playing time to get him fit so we schedule a friendly with FC United in their stadium. We win 4-0 and Andrea scores once and adds two assists. Aitor Zubizarreta, Carlo Cerbone and Steve Ingram score the other goals.



International Update

-- Youssouf Sylla, Arsene Bamba and Paulus Tjiuoro all get caps in African Nations qualifying, with this being Bamba's second cap for Ivory Coast.



Bolis Unhappy

-- Gianluca Bolis is unhappy and we have a chat, as he feels he deserves a new contract. He's only making £23,000 per week so I agree - I get together with his agent and I hope we can come up with a quick resolution. Bolis has been sensational this year and is finally fulfilling the huge promise we've had for him since bringing him to Dover three years ago. He has 15 goals and 11 assists in 43 total appearances this year.



Next Up

-- We head to Spain and Camp Nou to face Barcelona in the first leg of the quarterfinals of the Champions League.