[NoSkillz]

Sat. August 22 2020

Barclays Premier League
Norwich (0-0-1, 0 points, 17th) vs. Dover (1-0-0, 3 points, 5th)
Carrow Road, Norwich, UK

Betting Odds: Norwich: 6-4 (Favourites) Draw: 2-1 Dover: 13-8
Past Meetings: 3W 1D 1L

We head to Carrow Road to face newly promoted Norwich. In-game, this is their first trip to the top flight of English football since the 2004-05 season and even then, they finished 6th last year in the Championship, shockingly winning the playoff to get the Premier League golden ticket. Quite frankly, I'm amazed they are favoured and I'm hoping the team takes it personally! They lost 5-3 to Reading in their opener and their best player looks to be 26 year old striker Paul Bryce, who they picked up a year ago from Inverness CT. He scored 17 goals in the Championship for Norwich and scored twice in their Premier League opener. Our scouts don't know much about Norwich, likely due to the fact we haven't seen them in three years. They start with a flat 4-4-2 and we'll go with the same formation and philosophy as we did in our win against Tottenham. We make two lineup changes: Cameron Murray comes in at AML for the injured Arsene Bamba while we insert Gianluca Bolis at AMR after his return from the Olympics, replacing Petr Kostal.

Dover: 4-4-2 DM (4-2-3-1) Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, C. Rodriguez, P. Tjiuoro, S. Loucif
M - A. Rocca, N. Cairney
AM - C. Murray, Z. Bardi, G. Bolis
S - G. Gesios

I tell the lads, despite the odds, I expect a win against these guys!

2' - Wilke is forced to make a diving stop on a blast off a Norwich throw in..

12' - New MC signing Neil Cairney looks good early. He just misses a curling rocket that slips by the bar then on an ensuing corner, he narrowly misses a header, again just putting it over the woodwork.

19' - What a crazy sequence - Norwich gets the ball out wide on the left and the cross hits the back of our defender Tjiuoro and ricochets off the goalpost. We clear it up to Giorgos Gesios and he puts a brilliant through ball up to Zoltan Bardi who makes a beeline towards the net. Needing to use his weaker left foot due to defensive pressure on his right, he pokes a perfect shot off the post and into the net. 3rd goal of the year already for Bardi! DOVER GOAL 1-0

21' - Off the ensuing kickoff, the ball comes to their right midfielder, who cuts inside and left foots a great strike that Wilke just turns aside.

23' - Holy smokes! Renato Gaucho with the throw in at midfield and the ball is lofted up the left side to a chasing Cameron Murray. He heads it on the volley to Bardi and with his left foot again, strikes a vicious shot that the keeper gets a piece of but it still goes into the net. It's that man again!! Bardi is on FIRE! DOVER GOAL 2-0

37' - Gianluca Bolis takes off down the right wing on a counter attack and the only defender back is chasing him but THREE of our attackers are running down the field unmarked. Bolis is able to get the ball across to a wide open Gesios and he almost takes too long but finally buries it for his first of the season. A dream start for Dover! DOVER GOAL 3-0

38' - We are horrible defending kickoffs. Again, they are able to get take advantage of a pinching defender and get a partial breakaway. The shot is weak and easily stopped by Wilke.

HALFTIME - A fantastic half of football. We lead in possession 54% to 46% and 8-7 in shots (they have 5 shots on target to our 4 though). I tell them I'm pleased but pull aside Neil Cairney, who my assistant says is having serious problems blending into the squad - I tell him there's no pressure on him today and also pull aside Renato Gaucho, who's been skinned a couple of times to tell him I have faith in his game. We'll move to a counter attack for the start of the second half.

53' - Wild play as Bolis gets the ball on the right flank and finds Gesios unmarked at the top of the box. The Norwich keeper storms out to intercept and Gesios tries the lob, only it hits the post and sits on the goal line. Their defender clears just as it's about to cross the line. Insane!

56' - Bardi gets hurt on a challenge and is being tended to on the sidelines as we win a corner. Rocca curls one in from the left side and it meets the head of Cristian Rodgriguez, who propels it off the underside of the bar and into the net. Rodriguez's first Dover goal! DOVER GOAL 4-0

65' - Wilke is forced to make a diving stop after Gaucho lets his mark get by him down the right wing

66' - Bardi is a bit banged up and I take him off, bringing on captain Darren Pratley

70' - We're under a lot of pressure for the first time all game. They have multiple opportunities to score but either miss the net completely or put easy shots right at Wilke. We take out Andrea Rocca and bring in Gerardo Escobar, moving to a 4-4-2 Control with narrow width.

75' - Neil Cairney with the yellow. He's a very aggressive player and gets yellows in almost every game, or so it seems.

82' - Liam Craig is in for Cairney.

85 - The ball is won by Gesios at midfield and he storms down the left side. He avoids a sliding tackle, moves into the box with his left foot then cuts back to his right and delivers a ridiculous, curling shot into the right corner of the net. A magnificent strike! Gesios' 2nd of the contest and we're up five! DOVER GOAL 5-0

87' - Norwich is down to ten men due to injury.

91' - We just keep pouring on the pressure. A great sequence of passes results in a beautiful through ball by Escobar to Bolis. He cuts into the area alone but his shot is turned aside by their beleaguered keeper.

And that's it!

Norwich 0 - 5 Dover
Goals - Zoltan Bardi 2 (9.1), Giorgos Gesios 2 (9.5), Cristian Rodriguez (8.7)
Assists - Renato Gaucho (8.3), Andrea Rocca (8.0), Gianluca Bolis (8.5), Cameron Murray (8.1), Giorgos Gesios
Man of the Match - Giorgos Gesios
Other Dover Notables - Ingo Wilke (7.6), Salim Loucif (7.9); Paulus Tjiuoro (7.8)
Attendance - 24808

We edge them on possession 51% to 49% but they outshoot us 19-16 (9-8 on target) - thankfully, most of their shots were from well outside the box. A dominating performance!

-- Well, we've done it. A 2-0-0 start with a +6 goal differential has us, for the first time ever, sitting at the top of the table in the Barclays Premier League!



U18 Update

-- Our U18s lost a heavy 3-0 decision to Southampton. Young French striker Gregoire Lambert, who was extremely impressive off the bench for our reserve team last week, was noted again for his performance despite the loss.



Transfer OUT

-- Long time defensive stalwart Luke McCullough accepts a contract with Celtic FC and will be headed to Scotland in a £5,750,000 transfer deal. McCullough was a huge part of our rise through the leagues so it's not an easy decision for us to let him go. However, we obviously got into a little spat about money and it was apparent that he wasn't going to be a big part of our team going forward so getting almost two times his value is just good business.

McCullough was signed in July 2012 after he was released from Manchester United's youth system. He battled major injuries in two of his first three years with us, only playing a total of 43 league games during that time but he'd eventually become a major part of our team. His best season was in 2016-17, when he was one of our best players in our League 1 promotion year, scoring 6 goals and adding 5 assists from the backline in 35 league appearances. In total, he played 184 league games for Dover, scoring 15 goals and adding 9 assists. We wish Luke the best going forward.



-- The host for the 2028 Olympic Games is announced and it will be hosted in my home country of Canada



-- Sunderland won't give up on Gianluca Bolis, now offering £10,250,000 for him. No thanks - he's only 21 and destined to become a great right midfielder here at Dover. The same day, I get an offer for Bolis from Turkish side Besiktas JK, this time for £12,500,000 plus future incentives. Wow! Still a no but I'm starting to worry that Bolis is going to get upset. I've heard nary a peep from him on any of these rumours, thankfully! The transfer deadline is in one week so I won't have to be reading these stories for very long.



Barclays Premier League Team of the Week

-- Our scintillating performance gets SIX of our players named to the Premier League Team of the Week!!! Renato Gaucho, Cristian Rodriguez, Gianluca Bolis, Zoltan Bardi, Andrea Rocca and Giorgos Gesios all are honoured with the selection.



Injury Update

-- We have a couple of injuries right now. Arsene Bamba is still a couple weeks away from returning from his twisted ankle while DMC Mancini is our only long-term injury and he's out at least a month.



Next Up

-- We will be facing Rochdale in the second round of the League Cup at home