[NoSkillz]

Sat. August 26, 2023

Barclays Premier League
Fulham (0-0-1, 0 points, 15th) vs. Dover (0-1-0, 1 points, 8th)
Craven Cottage, London, UK

Betting Odds: Fulham: 7-4 Draw: 11-5 Dover: 5-4 (Favourites)
Past Meetings: 7W 2D 2L

Fulham got relegated from the Premier League after the 21/22 season, when they finished in dead last. They struggled in their return to the Championship, finishing 6th and in the last playoff position but they were able to win both playoff rounds to get the immediate promotion back into the Premier League after only one year away. They’ll likely battle against relegation all year and did very little in the July transfer window, with their biggest signing being GK Luke West for only £850,000 from Norwich. Their most dangerous scorer is likely Milan Djuric and they also have two former Dover players in striker Robbie Benson and defender Ross McLaughlin, who is hurt right now. In fact, Fulham have six injured players today.

I’m not satisfied with our performance last week in our opener against Everton and make three changes to the lineup. In are GK Manuel Perez, MC Jose, getting his first start at Dover and ST Paul Moses, getting his first start since signing with our club from Manchester United. Shanon Andrea won’t even be on the bench today after his 6.2 performance last week - I have Zoltan Bardi on the bench instead. Despite being on the road, I’ll go with a control mentality as favourites.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - M. Perez
D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, Jose, G. Bolis
S - P. Moses, Chiquinho
Bench - Rafinha, S. Nasri, A. Rocca, G. Fanfoni, H. Cruz, G. Allan, Z. Bardi

Fulham are in a 4-4-2 DM (4-2-3-1) with Djuric alone up front and Robbie Benson at AMC right behind him. Interesting. Joe Lewis is their goalkeeper. I tell the team I want a better performance in front of our travelling supporters.

6’ - Our first yellow card of the year comes on a Jose trip of former Dover player Robbie Benson. The announcer calls it a dive and Benson had a huge penchant for the dramatic in his one year with our club so I tend to believe him. That said, Jose gets the booking.

21’ - We finally get our first shot on net, as Moses shoots but it’s right at Lewis. Fulham look very tidy so far.

28’ - We have the ball at midfield and Jose sends a ball up through the defence and Moses latches onto it. He’s dribbling down the left, cuts in and shoots past Lewis, into the far corner and IN. We are on the board. DOVER GOAL 1-0

30’ - We have a free kick near midfield and Jose sends it up to Chiquinho. He then lays a touch pass off to Moses and our 19 year old protege shows his ridiculous acceleration, bursting past two defenders and into the area where he rips a low blast past Lewis and in for his second goal in three minutes. Magnificent move by Moses!!! DOVER GOAL 2-0

HALFTIME - Decent half saved by the brilliance of Paul Moses. We hold 54% of the possession and a 12-7 (5-2 on target) shot advantage. I tell the team I’m pleased so far.

48’ - We hit Fulham on the break and it’s a two-on-one with Moses leading the way and Chiquinho running alongside him. Moses makes the great pass into the middle but Chiquinho’s blast is stopped by Lewis! Wow. What a save that was and Chiquinho has his head in his hands. Fulham then lose the ball at midfield and it’s Chiquinho passing through the middle and there is Moses, running in on goal and shooting low to the right post and IN! HAT TRICK FOR PAUL MOSES! What a sequence!!! DOVER GOAL 3-0

54’ - We have a free kick inside their territory and Jose makes a HORRIBLE pass right to Fulham and they storm up field. The cross comes in and is headed toward goal but Perez makes the brilliant stop. He bobbles it a bit and recovers but that should have been a Fulham goal. HORRIFIC pass by Jose.

56’ - We have a corner and Bamba’s cross is to Hamon and he sends it back to Bamba. He cuts into the box and passes back to Neil Cairney, whose blast deflects off the head of Paul Moses and IN! Moses can do no wrong and has FOUR GOALS, tying a Dover single game record! DOVER GOAL 4-0

60’ - A double substitution, as I take out Jose and Chiquinho and bring in Gian Marco Fanfoni and Zoltan Bardi. Lets get Moses his fifth goal!!

68’ - OH MY. We work a beautiful passing play, from Bamba, to Fanfoni, to the middle to Cairney and finally through the defence and there is the spectacular Moses but his quick shot is to the left post and JUST WIDE! Ooooh!!

70’ - HOLY MOSES. There is a 50/50 ball and Moses pushes the Fulham player blatantly down but there is no call. Another Fulham defender has it and Moses simply strips the ball from him and runs from the midfield stripe in on goal. He shoots hard and low but Lewis makes the spectacular stop to keep Moses from scoring his fifth. “A vintage Moses performance”, screams the announcer! Haha!

72’ - Out comes Renato Gaucho and in comes Rafinha, as we make our last substitution and get the 19 year old his first action with our club.

90’ - Fulham are looking dangerous in our end but they botch a pass and we move on the counter. The ball is sent wide to Bamba and he crosses into the middle and Gianluca Bolis is completely unmarked and has a wide open net. No mistake is made and we strike for our fifth! DOVER GOAL 5-0

Moses!

Fulham 0 - 5 Dover
Goals - Paul Moses 4 (9.8), Gianluca Bolis (8.1)
Assists - Chiquinho 2 (8.1), Jose (7.6), Neil Cairney (8.2), Arsene Bamba (8.2)
Man of the Match - Paul Moses
Other Dover Notables - Salim Loucif (8.1), Rayane Hamon (8.1), Claudio Contreras (7.9), Renato Gaucho (7.3)
Attendance - 23,279

Words can’t describe the pure skill possessed by Paul Moses. We hold 52% of the ball and outshoot Fulham 26-10 (11-3 on target). All of our starters except for GK Perez (6.9) get ratings over 7.3.

-- Chelsea beat Birmingham 2-1 while Liverpool, Everton and Arsenal also win. Middlesbrough beat Spurs 4-3 in a thriller.



Dover U18 Update

-- The U18’s continue their early season winning ways, defeating Reading 3-1. Striker Eddie Robinson scores twice and promising winger Felix Hernandez scores the other goal and adds two assists as well.



Barclays Premier League Team of the Week

-- SIX of our players make the team of the week: Salim Loucif, Rayane Hamon, Gianluca Bolis, Neil Cairney, Paul Moses and Chiquinho get the honour.



Champions League Update

-- Moving on to the Group Stage in Champions League action are Basel, Partizan, Ajax, Palermo, FK Austria Wein, APOEL, Hajduk, CSKA Moscow, AS Monaco and Sevilla.

-- We are given £6.174 million for making it into the Group Stage!



Dover Reserves Team Update

-- Striker Andy Broomes scores three goals and Lyubomir Kunchev adds a single in a 4-1 win over Bolton’s Reserves.



Champions League - Group Stage Draw

-- Our co-efficient continues to rise but we’re third seeds for a second consecutive year, albeit the highest ranked third seed. Here is a look at the seeds, in order:

1st Seeds
Manchester United
Real Madrid
FC Bayern Munich
Olympique Lyonnais
Atletico Madrid
Barcelona
Arsenal
Sevilla

2nd Seeds
Palermo
OM
Sampdoria
HSV
AS Monaco FC
Galatasaray
Benfica
CSKA Moscow

3rd Seeds
Dover
Spartak Moscow
AZ
Chelsea
Ajax
Bursaspor
Hoffenheim
Juventus

4th Seeds
Panathinaikos
Celtic
Dynamo Kyiv
Partizan
Hajduk
FK Austria Wien
Basel
APOEL

Wow - Talk about a dangerous pod of third seeds, with us, Chelsea and Juventus in there!

And the results…UGLY! Likely the worst result we could have hoped for:

GROUP A
Arsenal
Galatasaray
Spartak Moscow
Basel

GROUP B
Barcelona
AS Monaco FC
AZ
Hajduk

GROUP C
FC Bayern Munich
Palermo
Dover
Dynamo Kyiv

GROUP D
Real Madrid
Benfica
Juventus
Partizan

GROUP E
Manchester United
HSV
Ajax
APOEL

GROUP F
Sevilla
OM
Hoffenheim
Celtic

GROUP G
Olympique Lyonnais
CSKA Moscow
Chelsea
Panathinaikos

GROUP H
Atletico Madrid
Sampdoria
Bursaspor
FK Austria Wien

By coefficient, we face the 3rd best 1st seed, the BEST 2nd seed and the third best 4th seed. Group of death. Group G looks pretty daunting as well and Group D isn’t too shabby either. This will be very difficult for us to move on. Even the press talk about it after the draw, saying we’ve been handed a very tough group.



Transfer Deadline

-- The transfer deadline passes without any more offers. Thankfully, no one was sniffing around Chiquinho after the big scare back in July!



September Update

-- Business starts to pick up in September, with four Premier League contests: Tottenham (Home), Manchester United (away), Newcastle (Home) and Norwich (away). We also have our first Champions League game in an away contest at Dynamo Kyiv and we start our defense of the League Cup, with third round action slated to begin at the end of the month. So six games in September and there is an international break sprinkled in there too for good measure!

-- We get positive training reports for Emmerson Harvey, Rafael Ramirez and Mathis Imbert but a negative report for Carlos Guzman. Time to have a chat with that youngster. Positive reports also come in for U18 players Felix Hernandez, Pete Smith and Eddie Robinson.



September Board Confidence Update

-- The board are very pleased with my overall leadership of the team, with our stature increase continuing to be the main positive. No negatives for the third consecutive month.

-- We made a profit of £731,000 last month.



League Cup - 3rd Round Draw

-- The tough draws continue and we’ll start our defense of the League Cup with a match against Liverpool, who have won the League Cup a record high eight times. Thankfully, it’s at home.



Next Up

-- We welcome Tottenham to Crabble Athletic Ground in Premier League action.