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Old 06-18-2014, 10:38 PM   #438
NoSkillz
College Benchwarmer
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
Sat. January 6, 2024

Barclays Premier League
Tottenham (13-6-2, 45 points, 4th) vs. Dover (15-4-1, 49 points, 1st)
White Hart Lane, London, UK

Betting Odds: Tottenham: Evens (Favourites) Draw: 11-5 Dover: 11-5
Past Meetings: 6W 4D 2L

The Spurs are sitting pretty in fourth place right now after a number of disappointing seasons and are being led by a former Dover striker in Gerardo Escobar. He’s tied for the team lead in goals with fellow striker Jean Junior with 12. They are on a SEVENTEEN game unbeaten streak right now and that was a 2-1 League Cup loss to Burnley, of all teams. Their last league loss was to us in September. Needless to say, they are HOT as a pistol right now.

We’re pretty hot ourselves, riding a 14 game unbeaten streak with 12 wins and 2 ties since our 5-3 loss to Liverpool on November 4th, our only loss of the year so far. We will start pretty much a full strength side today. Graham Allan will play at MR for Gianluca Bolis, who is still regaining match fitness after a long injury break and in-form midfielder Andrea Rocca will play instead of Jose, who instead will suit up for sure against Man United in a midweek contest. Despite being underdogs, I’ll go with a control mentality today.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - Renato Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, A. Rocca, G. Allan
S - P. Moses, Chiquinho
Bench - Rafinha, S. Nasri, Jose, E. Harvey, H. Cruz, G. Bolis, S. Andrea

Tottenham come out in a flat 4-4-2 as well, with Escobar and Mahmoud Ashoubi up front. Matthieu Dreyer is in goal. A number of their players are tired so hopefully we can wear them out early. Lets play well for the travelling supporters today.

8’ - Chiquinho with an early yellow card.

9’ - Escobar eludes a Salim Loucif tackle and is in the area but his shot is stopped by Ingo Wilke.

11’ - Spurs start a counter off a failed Rocca corner kick and a cross comes in to Ashoubi and he scores. But he’s pretty blatantly offsides and the assistant has his flag up appropriately. NO GOAL.

18’ - Arsene Bamba has the ball near midfield and passes to Paul Moses. He is well marked but gets into the area. A defender is well positioned between Moses and the goal but you simply can’t deny the skill of Moses, who somehow blasts a shot past the defender and into the short side of the goal past a stunned Dreyer. Moses is sensational and he can score goals even in situations where he’s completely covered. DOVER GOAL 1-0

25’ - We have a free kick near midfield and Rocca works a ball up to Chiquinho just outside the area. He turns and sends a little touch pass into the area and Moses charges after it, as does goalkeeper Dreyer. Unfortunately for him, he can’t get there before the lightning fast Moses and our striker quickly boots the ball into the corner of the net! That’s two for Moses! DOVER GOAL 2-0

28’ - We’re in complete control at this point and we devise a ridiculously beautiful three way passing play between Moses, Chiquinho and Rocca that culminates in Rocca RIPPING a shot off the goal post! Great play and great chance!

38’ - All of the chances are going our way, as Chiquinho sends Moses on a clear cut breakaway. Moses cuts in on goal but Dreyer makes the big save!

41’ - Now we work a counter and send Graham Allan in but his shot is right at Dreyer and he turns it aside.

43’ - Renato Gaucho with a yellow card. Spurs get a free kick and we immediately head the ball to safety, starting a quick counter. Bamba feeds Moses and he eludes a tackle and is off to the races. He’s in on goal and Dreyer makes the save but a big rebound is right onto the foot of Chiquinho. He has an open net and MISSES! Ugh!

HALFTIME - FANTASTIC half of football for us. Possession is relatively even, with us holding a very slight 51% edge but shots are 15-7 (7-1 on target) in our favour. They don’t have an answer at all for Moses, whose speed is simply too much for their central defence. I contemplate a tactics change to a more counter attacking mentality but I’ll keep with my control mentality for a bit and see how the start of the half goes. I tell the lads I’m pleased so far.

51’ - Spurs get a chance on a free kick from just outside the area but Escobar’s header is weak and right at Wilke. Easy save. Spurs look motivated to start this half based on a quick chat with my assistant.

53’ - Spurs are starting to charge here and a cross comes into the box to Ashoubi and Wilke makes a great save. The rebound is there and Ashoubi has an open net but Loucif blocks it and it goes behind the goal for a corner. Whew.

61’ - We move to a counter attacking mentality.

82’ - Yellow card for Neil Cairney now. We also make our first substitution, bringing in Jose for Andrea Rocca.

87’ - We continue to hold them off nicely and make another change, bringing in Shanon Andrea for Chiquinho.

88’ - One more change, as Emmerson Harvey comes on for Neil Cairney.

90’+2 - Escobar turns and fires from just outside the area and WILKE makes a fantastic diving save to keep the shutout going!

Great result!

Tottenham 0 - 2 Dover
Goals - Paul Moses 2 (8.8)
Assists - Arsene Bamba (7.6), Chiquinho (7.6)
Man of the Match - Paul Moses
Other Dover Notables - Ingo Wilke (7.8), Salim Loucif (7.4), Rayane Hamon (7.2), Claudio Contreras (7.5), Renato Gaucho (7.2), Andrea Rocca (7.1)
Attendance - 34,855

We allowed Tottenham to control a lot of possession in that second half but we employed a nice “bend but don’t break” defence and held them off. Possession was in Tottenham’s favour with 53% of the ball but we outshot them 19-18 (9-6 on target). Great result and we end the Spurs very long unbeaten streak!

-- In other Premier League action, Chelsea help us out by defeating Liverpool 1-0 and Wolves shock everyone by holding Man City to a draw! Manchester United, our next opponents, also can only manage a draw against a solid Middlesbrough team. We expand our lead to four points!


BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - STANDINGS
(ALL TEAMS HAVE PLAYED 22 GAMES UNLESS NOTED)

1. Dover - 52 points (after 21 games)
2. Manchester United - 48 points (after 21 games)
3. Liverpool - 46 points
4. Tottenham - 45 points
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5. Manchester City - 42 points (after 21 games)
6. Middlesbrough - 41 points
7. Chelsea - 40 points (after 20 games)
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Dover U18 Team Update

-- The U18’s destroy QPR 6-0, with both Adam Hyde and Ben Patterson scoring a pair of goals. Pete Smith and Steven Miller notched singles in the win.



New Coaches

-- Not a big deal but I’ll mention that we sign three new coaches for our U18 squad, as we now have a full staff allotment for both the youth and senior squads. We gain a half star in two training categories and now are at 4.5 stars or better in 7 of 9 categories for the U18 squad.



Transfer Window Fun

-- Olympique Lyonnais offer £11,500,000 for in-form winger Arsene Bamba and it’s swiftly rejected. We’re not selling anyone right now - we’re going for the title! Sevilla then offer £13,750,000 for him! Wow. Rejected too but man, that’s a lot of money!



Premier League Team of the Week

-- Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz, Arsene Bamba and Paul Moses all make the Premier League Team of the Week!



Dover Injury Update

-- We are almost completely healthy, with only backup striker Zoltan Bardi still nursing an injury. He’s almost ready to return to full training after recovering from torn ankle ligaments.



Next Up

-- We have a HUGE home game against second placed Manchester United as the two teams at the top of the Barclays Premier League go into battle!

Last edited by NoSkillz : 06-18-2014 at 10:40 PM.
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