[NoSkillz]

Sat. January 30, 2021

FA Cup - 4th Round
Dover vs. Nottingham Forest
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK

Betting Odds: Dover: 4-6 (Favourites) Draw: 9-4 Nottingham Forest: 7-2
Past Meetings: 2W 0D 0L

Nottingham Forest are currently in 10th in the Championship and earned the right to be here thanks to a replay win over Premier League side Bolton in the 3rd round. Their danger man is 32 year old striker Lee Novak, who has 15 goals in 28 games across all competitions thus far. That said, their top performer is veteran midfielder Radoslaw Majewski (the magic man?), who has 5 goals and 11 assists in 22 games, good for a scintillating 7.66 average rating. Pretty incredible.

I'm still completely numb over the sale of our stalwart centre halfback. Claudio Contreras, at 18 years young, will be put into the lineup as Rodriguez's replacement - at 3.0/5.0, Contreras is arguably a better prospect but there's no question he's a bit green. I make one change to our lineup, as Fabianski will be in goal for Wilke (sending him a message after his agent's call for a new deal). I also change the composition of our bench, bringing a few youngsters like McLaughlin and Prochazka in just in case we take a solid lead.

Dover: 4-4-2 DM (4-2-3-1) Control
GK - L. Fabianski
D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, P. Tjiuoro, J. Kuciak
M - A. Rocca, N. Cairney
AM - A. Bamba, Z. Bardi, G. Bolis
S - G. Gesios
Bench - O. Nicholas, J. Varga, R. McLaughlin, D. Pratley, L. Craig, M. Prochazka, G. Escobar

Forest come out in a 4-4-2 diamond formation with two central mids. I tell the lads I expect a win and pull aside Cairney (pick up where you left off), Bardi and Gesios (I have faith in your abilities).

11' - No highlights for the first 8 minutes then there is an extended sequence that goes back and forth but ends with Gesios dribbling down the middle of the pitch, gaining some space and firing a low shot that their keeper barely gets to but holds without a rebound.

20' - Forest's tight diamond formation is giving us some fits early and they have an extended period of possession where they win three consecutive corners. On the third one, we head the ball clear and Paulus Tjiuoro leaves his defending duties behind and chases the ball. He clears it up to Gesios, who is at centre field and the Greek international takes over, dribbling down field in spectacular fashion, bursting by three defenders and then shooting confidently into the lower far corner of the net. Magnificent effort from Gesios! DOVER GOAL 1-0

31' - The relatively quiet Arsene Bamba, whose name I haven't called in awhile, gets the ball up to Gesios and Forest's defence continues to be no match for him. He gains a step and shoots but the Forest keeper stops it. The rebound comes right back to Gesios and his shot is just deflected wide by a sliding defender! Great chances! Rocca's corner is grabbed and held by Pontdeme, their keeper.

34' - Gesios again! This time it's Bardi grabbing the ball while defending a corner and knocking it up to Gesios. He easily beats their man and has a step on him before shooting JUST wide into the side netting.

40' - We get a corner and Rocca's cross is to the near post. Contreras is there but flops down looking for a foul. One is forthcoming but it's to him for the dive. Yellow card for Contreras.

41' - Contreras makes a poor pinch and a killer ball is sent through to striker Lee Novak. He has room to move right in on Fabianski, who challenges him and forces Novak's shot just wide. Good chance for their top goal scorer there but we still lead by one.

HALFTIME - Gesios seems to be the only guy who has shown up for us. We held the ball 53% of the time and are outshooting them 6-4 (4-1 on target). I want more and decide to encourage the team. I also switch to a flat 4-4-2 control in hopes of getting more control in the middle of the park.

47' - We win a corner and in a rare occurrence, Rocca sends the ball to Cairney, who is lurking outside the area. He sends in a curling rocket that Pontdeme dives and sends out of play to the sidelines. Great shot by Cairney, as it was tracking to the top corner.

50' - We're taking the play to them now. Rocca shows incredible vision with a wonderful pass across the pitch to Gianluca Bolis, who is streaking down the right side. He cuts toward goal and his hard blast is turned behind the net by Pontdeme. On the ensuing corner, Rocca's in-swinging cross is headed into the net by Zoltan Bardi. Forest defenders claim Bardi handled it but the referee denies their claims. Good sequence! DOVER GOAL 2-0

62' - Over twelve minutes without highlights before Rocca gets a free kick just outside the box. It's headed away and comes to young Contreras, who sends a wonderful little through ball to Bamba but his hard shot is saved by Pontdeme and cleared out of the zone.

71' - We make a double substitution, with yellow carded Contreras coming off for Oliver Nicholas and loanee Martin Prochazka coming on for Gianluca Bolis. Hopefully it's not a silly move bringing on two rarely used players in this situation but we seem to have great control this half.

75' - Gaucho sends a ball up to Bamba and then he makes a sensational pass upfield to Gesios. Our striker walks in from the left side with a defender closing in and JUST shoots wide of the far post. Gesios could have a hat trick easily in this game.

79' - I bring in another rarely used player in Ross McLaughlin, as he replaces Jozef Kuciak.

92'+3 - There have been a few highlights but no real chances in the last ten minutes but in extra time, Gesios and Bardi work a one-two off a throw in and cross over, with Bardi charging down the left side. He dribbles into the left side of the area and sends in a low, left footed pass to Gesios charging up the middle. He slides for it and sends it past the surprised Forest keeper! Gesios bags his brace…deservedly so in a wonderful performance. DOVER GOAL 3-0

The ref blows the whistle right after Forest kick off.

Dover 3 - 0 Nottingham Forest
Goals - Giorgos Gesios 2 (9.2), Zoltan Bardi (8.2)
Assists - Paulus Tjiuoro (7.5), Andrea Rocca (7.7), Zoltan Bardi
Man of the Match - Giorgos Gesios
Other Dover Notables - Jozef Kuciak (7.4), Claudio Contreras (7.0), Renato Gaucho (7.6), Neil Cairney (7.4), Arsene Bamba (7.1)
Attendance - 12,741

The move to the flat 4-4-2 worked well, as we ended up holding a significant possession edge 58% to 42% for the game and outshot them 17-6 (10-1 on target). We were great in that second half. What a game from Gesios...

-- We are given £92,000 for the victory.



Transfer Window Closing

-- I make a number of bids and have two significant bids accepted, one for a world class Brazilian striker and another for a midfielder. Both get thwarted by greedy agents looking for ludicrous fees I can't meet for their services. At the end of the day, it's likely for the best, as I don't want to disrupt the chemistry we have right now. I can use that money in June to get a big name player.

-- Man City make a subpar £1,800,000 offer for young DC Abdallaye Kokaina and I reject it immediately.

-- A media report suggests Bolton (??) is prepared to offer us £17,250,000 for Gianluca Bolis - where in the hell would BOLTON get that kind of money? I'll believe it when I see it!



February Update

-- We have only four Premier League games this month: Sunderland (AWAY), Liverpool (HOME), Manchester United (AWAY) and Arsenal (HOME). Tough sledding for us. We'll also have our fifth round FA Cup match later this month.

-- My assistant delivers his training report for January and Salim Loucif, Arsene Bamba and reserve striker Dennis Kunz all train well, as do youth players Garry Doyle, Johnny Mardenborough and Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz. Guys failing to impress in training are aging goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski, veteran midfielder Liam Craig and youth pull Steve Sinnott. I have a chat with the three guys who didn't train well.

-- DC Thomas Andersen, currently on loan at Burnley in the Championship, wins the league's Young Player of the Month award. Cool!

-- WOW! Arsene Bamba, on the strength of his hat trick earlier in January, wins the Barclays Premier League Player of the Month award! Andrea Rocca comes in third! Good showing guys!

-- Former centre halfback Cristian Rodriguez, just stolen from us by Man United, wins the Premier League Young Player of the Month. All four games he played were for our club so the newspaper shows him as being "from Dover". Gianluca Bolis finished in second place for the award.

-- I finish runner up to Manchester City's Carlo Ancelotti for Manager of the Month honours. City won all five of their games in January while we had a draw amongst our games versus Chelsea, with the rest all wins.



Future Transfer IN

-- I scoop up Ivory Coast international goalkeeper Youssouf Sylla on a Bosman transfer signing and he's scheduled to join our club on July 1st. The 26 year old has 51 caps for his country and is currently rated as a 3.5/3.5 player by my chief scout. It's a low-risk move for our club, as he can challenge incumbent Ingo Wilke next season for the starting job.



February Board Confidence Update

-- The board are delighted with the leadership qualities I'm demonstrating. Stature increase continues to be the major reason while the loan signing of MR Martin Prochazka is the slight disappointment. Well, as least they finally stopped thinking about mediocre striker Simon Rideout! Prochazka has barely played so I can understand the frustration but Gianluca Bolis is the starter and has been healthy pretty much all year.

-- We made a profit of £10.75 million last month…that's of course the money from the sale of Cristian Rodriguez. I'm still sore…



International Update

-- Right fullback Salim Loucif played well but Algeria lost 1-0 to Mali in the quarterfinals of the African Cup of Nations and are eliminated from the competition. I assume he'll be returning to Dover in short order.


-- And the transfer window closes with me trying without success to bring in a marquee player. It's kind of cool but you can tell that you have to SERIOUSLY overpay at this time of year and with that said, I'm hoping I can utilize the 22 million I currently have when the season ends.



Updated Standings

-- Here's how things look in the Premier League as of February 1, 2021, with all teams currently at 25 games played:

1. Man City - 64 points
2. Man United - 61 points
3. Dover - 51 points
4. Chelsea - 51 points
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5. Arsenal - 42 points
6. Liverpool - 40 points
7. Everton - 38 points
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8. Reading - 36 points
9. Huddersfield - 33 points
10. Middlesbrough - 33 points
11. Aston Villa - 32 points
12. Tottenham - 31 points
13. Newcastle - 31 points
14. Sunderland - 29 points
15. Derby - 26 points
16. Stoke - 23 points
17. Norwich - 22 points
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18. Sheffield Wednesday - 21 points
19. Bolton - 19 points
20. Fulham - 15 points



Next Up

-- We head to the Stadium of Light to face Sunderland in a mid-week matchup