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

NoSkillz · 11-16-2013, 12:23 AM

2017/18 npower Championship Results

I was worried about squad unity heading into the season but after an undefeated preseason, I started thinking more positively. Needless to say, after our first Championship match, we proved that we belonged at this level.

Using our splendid 4-4-2 DM formation, we'd rip apart Nottingham Forest to the tune of 6-0! Loan forward Zoltan Bardi, playing AMC, netted a hat trick and we'd also get goals from newcomer and captain Darren Pratley, last year's star Robert Kerkhof and winger Keith King.

That was only the beginning…

Amazingly, our club, predicted to finish in dead last by the pundits, rang up an 18-game undefeated streak to start the season, tying only 1 game. That's a 17-1-0 start!!! Needless to say, we were in first by a mile when we'd finally lose our first game, a 2-0 away defeat to West Bromwich.

We'd lose three of our next four in league play but were still well in front after gaining 3 more wins during the Christmas season. A 5-2 win on New Year's Day put us at 21-1-4 and we were on top of the world.

That's precisely when our form went into the gutter. We'd go ten consecutive games without a victory in all competitions, not winning another game until March 10th. In the process, we fell into 2nd place behind Bolton, who were having a great season of their own. We'd win three in a row to close out March and were in the title hunt at the beginning of April. However, another cold spell saw us win only 1 of our next 7 matches.

That was enough to give Bolton the Championship title going away and we'd reach our final game of the season, a home match against QPR, needing a win to lock up 2nd place and an automatic promotion to the Premier League. A tie or loss would knock us down to either 3rd or 4th and we'd have to battle it out in a playoff to see who gets the third promotion spot in the EPL.

As you know by now, having read the first post in this dynasty thread, Dover was able to prevail despite falling to 10 men, 4-2, thereby finishing second in the Championship and gaining promotion to the Barclays Premier League.

The little club that could, Dover Athletic FC, was heading to the big-time.

Dover was heading to the Premier League!!!

npower Championship 2017-18 League Awards

Top Goalscorer: James Hunter, Nottingham Forest - 27
Most Assists: Sebastian Dubarbier, Bolton - 25
Highest Average Rating: Liam Craig, Dover - 7.52 (38 apps)
Most Man of Match Awards: Daniel Pappoe, Barnsley - 10
Manager of the Year: NoSkillz, Dover

npower Championship Player's Team of the Year
GK - Ingo Wilke, Dover
DL - Danny Earls, Norwich
DC - Oliver Nicholas, Dover
DC - Gary Cahill, Bolton
DR - Nathaniel Clyne, West Bromwich
ML - Sebastien Dubarbier, Bolton
MC - Craig Gardner, West Bromwich
MC - Andy King, Bolton
MR - Chris Eagles, Bolton
ST - James Hunter, Nottingham Forest
ST - Jonathan Pereira, West Ham

Dover MC/ML Liam Craig was also named to the team as a substitute. Ingo Wilke has been named to the player's select team all three years he's been with our club. This is Oliver Nicholas' first league award.

Our hot start enabled me to win the Championship Manager of the Month award for September and I'd win the Manager of the Year award as well.

We won 11 games in a row between August 12th and October 7, 2017 and that is an npower Championship record that still stands today.

Cup Competitions 2017-18

FA Cup -
Talk about a short stay in a competition! We'd get a bye into the 3rd round where we faced Premier League club Fulham at Craven Cottage. They'd knock us off with ease and just like that, we were out!

3rd Round - Fullham 3 Dover 1

League Cup
Thankfully, we had a bit more success, and an easier road, in the League Cup.

We faced League 2 side Rushden & Diamonds in the 1st round at home and knocked them off with relative ease before facing division rival West Ham in round two. We'd need extra time, getting a 98th minute goal from Liam Craig to move on before running into Blackburn, a Premier League club. We'd play them very tough and take them to extra time at Ewood Park but an own goal from young loan defender Bogdan Dragnea in the 105th minute led to our defeat.

1st Round - Dover 2 Rushden 0
2nd Round - West Ham 2 Dover 3 (in extra time)
3rd Round - Blackburn 3 Dover 2 (in extra time)

2017-18 Overall Dover Statistics

Top Goalscorer: Liam Craig - 14
Top League Goalscorer: Simon Rideout - 12
Most Assists: Liam Craig - 25
Highest Average Rating: Liam Craig - 7.56 (40 apps)
Most Man of Match Awards: Liam Craig - 7
Fans Player of the Year: Liam Craig

New signing Liam Craig stole the show for us this year, leading in practically every category as a winger/central midfielder. Simply an incredible statistical season!

2017-18 Dover Best Eleven

GK - Ingo Wilke - 36 apps 0g 7.02 avg
DL - Bob Harris - 36 apps 0g 7.11 avg
DC - Jeroen Simaeys - 29 apps 2g 6.98 avg
DC - Oliver Nicholas - 44 apps 5g 7.28 avg
DR - Conor Morrissey - 25 apps 1g 7.02 avg
AML - Liam Craig - 40 apps 14g 7.56 avg
MC - Darren Pratley - 37 apps 7g 6.98 avg
MC - Jamal Yildirim - 34 apps 3g 6.99 avg
AMR - Keith King - 32 apps 8g 7.17 avg
AMC - Zoltan Bardi - 30 apps 12g 7.04 avg
ST - Simon Rideout - 35 apps 12g 7.03 avg

Other notables: GK Eduard Hanke 13 apps 0g 6.85; GK Martin Read 1 apps 0g 5.80; DC Luke McCullough 24 apps 1g 6.92; DR Jackson Ramm 28 apps 0g 6.91; ML Simon Bouwman 19 apps 1g 6.92; AMC Marvin Emnes 28 apps 6g 6.94; ST Robert Kerkhof 30 apps 12g 7.02

GK -
Ingo Wilke was at his acrobatic best once again, winning a third straight "GK of the Year" nod from his peers. Young GK Eduard Hanke played enough cup ties to keep busy.

D -
Oliver Nicholas had a very strong season on defence, along with DL Bob Harris. Newcomer Jeroen Simaeys played well when called upon, especially when Luke McCullough went down due to injury. We continue to get good rotational play at right fullback from both Conor Morrissey and Jackson Ramm

M -
The story at midfield was the incredible season put forth by newcomer Liam Craig - he took corners, played wing or in the middle of the park and was a waterbug out there all season long. A fantastic pickup for us on a free! Darren Pratley, our new captain, provided great leadership and a big right foot down the middle. Arsenal loanee Zoltan Bardi played mostly at attacking midfielder and was inconsistent but effective when needed.

F -
Last year's star player Robert Kerkhof had a horrendous mid-season slump and saw his playing time plummet near the end of the year. Simon Rideout was arguably our best forward.

Year-End Financials

We saw close to a 50% increase in turnover but our costs were significant, as we spent more money on wages in order to make a push for the Premier League. It was all worth it in the end! We had a negative bank balance at the end of June but I'm pretty sure that would be taken care of quickly upon our move to the top league! Average attendance was just short of our capacity and we sold out close to half our games this year. Will we EVER get the board to expand our stadium?

Closing Thoughts

I can't tell you how thrilled I am at getting Dover all the way to the Premier League. Five promotions in eight years - it makes it sound like it was an easy road but it was anything but!

My agent told me that my ability to get Dover to the Premier League had not gone unnoticed by clubs around the world, saying I would likely be getting some offers to move elsewhere. I nodded and told him to keep in touch.

An offer came in almost immediately from Stoke City. I was being offered £20,000/week to manage at Britannia Stadium. £20,000 PER WEEK?!! I was currently making only £1,800/week…hell, I'd exceed my current yearly salary in five weeks with Stoke!

I didn't think too long before rejecting the offer. I had no interest whatsoever in moving to Stoke, a team that just was being relegated back to the Championship. Stoke is obviously a big club but that's a step back as far as I was concerned.

I yearned for Premier League football.

Two days later, I got a call I never thought I'd get.

Liverpool FC, one of the largest clubs in the world, wanted me to come and manage at the brand spanking new Liverpool Stadium, a 60,781 all-seater that would be opening for play in the coming season.

Liverpool was offering me £45,000 PER WEEK to manage the club but that's not all.

How about a weekly wage budget of £1.8 million? Yes…MILLION! My wage budget at Dover this year was £50,000/week.

Oh and that transfer budget, you ask? How about £30,000,000?

Holy mother of God.

I asked the Liverpool chairman to give me a week to think about it and they were accommodating.

Their club is in great shape, coming off a 3rd place finish in the Premier League, meaning they'd be playing Champions League football. The CHAMPIONS LEAGUE! And in a brand new stadium with a very new chairman, as Ian Ayre just recently was promoted after John Henry left the club in February.

I don't know if I'll ever get a better opportunity in the world of football. Fans at Dover feared the worst and our board could only wait and hope for the best.

In the end, I just couldn't leave the club that I had given so much to over the past eight years. I declined the Liverpool offer, much to the delight of the Dover board and the supporters.

I had to see this through.

What a challenge this will be!

11-16-2013, 12:23 AM	#33
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	2017/18 npower Championship Results I was worried about squad unity heading into the season but after an undefeated preseason, I started thinking more positively. Needless to say, after our first Championship match, we proved that we belonged at this level. Using our splendid 4-4-2 DM formation, we'd rip apart Nottingham Forest to the tune of 6-0! Loan forward Zoltan Bardi, playing AMC, netted a hat trick and we'd also get goals from newcomer and captain Darren Pratley, last year's star Robert Kerkhof and winger Keith King. That was only the beginning… Amazingly, our club, predicted to finish in dead last by the pundits, rang up an 18-game undefeated streak to start the season, tying only 1 game. That's a 17-1-0 start!!! Needless to say, we were in first by a mile when we'd finally lose our first game, a 2-0 away defeat to West Bromwich. We'd lose three of our next four in league play but were still well in front after gaining 3 more wins during the Christmas season. A 5-2 win on New Year's Day put us at 21-1-4 and we were on top of the world. That's precisely when our form went into the gutter. We'd go ten consecutive games without a victory in all competitions, not winning another game until March 10th. In the process, we fell into 2nd place behind Bolton, who were having a great season of their own. We'd win three in a row to close out March and were in the title hunt at the beginning of April. However, another cold spell saw us win only 1 of our next 7 matches. That was enough to give Bolton the Championship title going away and we'd reach our final game of the season, a home match against QPR, needing a win to lock up 2nd place and an automatic promotion to the Premier League. A tie or loss would knock us down to either 3rd or 4th and we'd have to battle it out in a playoff to see who gets the third promotion spot in the EPL. As you know by now, having read the first post in this dynasty thread, Dover was able to prevail despite falling to 10 men, 4-2, thereby finishing second in the Championship and gaining promotion to the Barclays Premier League. The little club that could, Dover Athletic FC, was heading to the big-time. Dover was heading to the Premier League!!! npower Championship 2017-18 League Awards Top Goalscorer: James Hunter, Nottingham Forest - 27 Most Assists: Sebastian Dubarbier, Bolton - 25 Highest Average Rating: Liam Craig, Dover - 7.52 (38 apps) Most Man of Match Awards: Daniel Pappoe, Barnsley - 10 Manager of the Year: NoSkillz, Dover npower Championship Player's Team of the Year GK - Ingo Wilke, Dover DL - Danny Earls, Norwich DC - Oliver Nicholas, Dover DC - Gary Cahill, Bolton DR - Nathaniel Clyne, West Bromwich ML - Sebastien Dubarbier, Bolton MC - Craig Gardner, West Bromwich MC - Andy King, Bolton MR - Chris Eagles, Bolton ST - James Hunter, Nottingham Forest ST - Jonathan Pereira, West Ham Dover MC/ML Liam Craig was also named to the team as a substitute. Ingo Wilke has been named to the player's select team all three years he's been with our club. This is Oliver Nicholas' first league award. Our hot start enabled me to win the Championship Manager of the Month award for September and I'd win the Manager of the Year award as well. We won 11 games in a row between August 12th and October 7, 2017 and that is an npower Championship record that still stands today. Cup Competitions 2017-18 FA Cup - Talk about a short stay in a competition! We'd get a bye into the 3rd round where we faced Premier League club Fulham at Craven Cottage. They'd knock us off with ease and just like that, we were out! 3rd Round - Fullham 3 Dover 1 League Cup Thankfully, we had a bit more success, and an easier road, in the League Cup. We faced League 2 side Rushden & Diamonds in the 1st round at home and knocked them off with relative ease before facing division rival West Ham in round two. We'd need extra time, getting a 98th minute goal from Liam Craig to move on before running into Blackburn, a Premier League club. We'd play them very tough and take them to extra time at Ewood Park but an own goal from young loan defender Bogdan Dragnea in the 105th minute led to our defeat. 1st Round - Dover 2 Rushden 0 2nd Round - West Ham 2 Dover 3 (in extra time) 3rd Round - Blackburn 3 Dover 2 (in extra time) 2017-18 Overall Dover Statistics Top Goalscorer: Liam Craig - 14 Top League Goalscorer: Simon Rideout - 12 Most Assists: Liam Craig - 25 Highest Average Rating: Liam Craig - 7.56 (40 apps) Most Man of Match Awards: Liam Craig - 7 Fans Player of the Year: Liam Craig New signing Liam Craig stole the show for us this year, leading in practically every category as a winger/central midfielder. Simply an incredible statistical season! 2017-18 Dover Best Eleven GK - Ingo Wilke - 36 apps 0g 7.02 avg DL - Bob Harris - 36 apps 0g 7.11 avg DC - Jeroen Simaeys - 29 apps 2g 6.98 avg DC - Oliver Nicholas - 44 apps 5g 7.28 avg DR - Conor Morrissey - 25 apps 1g 7.02 avg AML - Liam Craig - 40 apps 14g 7.56 avg MC - Darren Pratley - 37 apps 7g 6.98 avg MC - Jamal Yildirim - 34 apps 3g 6.99 avg AMR - Keith King - 32 apps 8g 7.17 avg AMC - Zoltan Bardi - 30 apps 12g 7.04 avg ST - Simon Rideout - 35 apps 12g 7.03 avg Other notables: GK Eduard Hanke 13 apps 0g 6.85; GK Martin Read 1 apps 0g 5.80; DC Luke McCullough 24 apps 1g 6.92; DR Jackson Ramm 28 apps 0g 6.91; ML Simon Bouwman 19 apps 1g 6.92; AMC Marvin Emnes 28 apps 6g 6.94; ST Robert Kerkhof 30 apps 12g 7.02 GK - Ingo Wilke was at his acrobatic best once again, winning a third straight "GK of the Year" nod from his peers. Young GK Eduard Hanke played enough cup ties to keep busy. D - Oliver Nicholas had a very strong season on defence, along with DL Bob Harris. Newcomer Jeroen Simaeys played well when called upon, especially when Luke McCullough went down due to injury. We continue to get good rotational play at right fullback from both Conor Morrissey and Jackson Ramm M - The story at midfield was the incredible season put forth by newcomer Liam Craig - he took corners, played wing or in the middle of the park and was a waterbug out there all season long. A fantastic pickup for us on a free! Darren Pratley, our new captain, provided great leadership and a big right foot down the middle. Arsenal loanee Zoltan Bardi played mostly at attacking midfielder and was inconsistent but effective when needed. F - Last year's star player Robert Kerkhof had a horrendous mid-season slump and saw his playing time plummet near the end of the year. Simon Rideout was arguably our best forward. Year-End Financials We saw close to a 50% increase in turnover but our costs were significant, as we spent more money on wages in order to make a push for the Premier League. It was all worth it in the end! We had a negative bank balance at the end of June but I'm pretty sure that would be taken care of quickly upon our move to the top league! Average attendance was just short of our capacity and we sold out close to half our games this year. Will we EVER get the board to expand our stadium? Closing Thoughts I can't tell you how thrilled I am at getting Dover all the way to the Premier League. Five promotions in eight years - it makes it sound like it was an easy road but it was anything but! My agent told me that my ability to get Dover to the Premier League had not gone unnoticed by clubs around the world, saying I would likely be getting some offers to move elsewhere. I nodded and told him to keep in touch. An offer came in almost immediately from Stoke City. I was being offered £20,000/week to manage at Britannia Stadium. £20,000 PER WEEK?!! I was currently making only £1,800/week…hell, I'd exceed my current yearly salary in five weeks with Stoke! I didn't think too long before rejecting the offer. I had no interest whatsoever in moving to Stoke, a team that just was being relegated back to the Championship. Stoke is obviously a big club but that's a step back as far as I was concerned. I yearned for Premier League football. Two days later, I got a call I never thought I'd get. Liverpool FC, one of the largest clubs in the world, wanted me to come and manage at the brand spanking new Liverpool Stadium, a 60,781 all-seater that would be opening for play in the coming season. Liverpool was offering me £45,000 PER WEEK to manage the club but that's not all. How about a weekly wage budget of £1.8 million? Yes…MILLION! My wage budget at Dover this year was £50,000/week. Oh and that transfer budget, you ask? How about £30,000,000? Holy mother of God. I asked the Liverpool chairman to give me a week to think about it and they were accommodating. Their club is in great shape, coming off a 3rd place finish in the Premier League, meaning they'd be playing Champions League football. The CHAMPIONS LEAGUE! And in a brand new stadium with a very new chairman, as Ian Ayre just recently was promoted after John Henry left the club in February. I don't know if I'll ever get a better opportunity in the world of football. Fans at Dover feared the worst and our board could only wait and hope for the best. In the end, I just couldn't leave the club that I had given so much to over the past eight years. I declined the Liverpool offer, much to the delight of the Dover board and the supporters. I had to see this through. What a challenge this will be! __________________ 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 : 11-16-2013 at 12:32 AM.