[NoSkillz]

Tue. January 30, 2024

League Cup - Semi Finals Second Leg
Southampton (0) vs. (7) Dover
St. Mary’s Stadium, Southampton, UK

Betting Odds: Southampton: 3-1 Draw: 2-1 Dover: 4-5 (Favourites)
Past Meetings: 3W 2D 1L

Not much to say here - we just destroyed these guys 7-0 at home last week. Again, the danger man will be striker Shyamdew Doesburg, who is up to 16 goals in 30 appearances.

All backups today and I will give Rafinha his first ever start at left midfield so we can see what he can do, something that could be important if Helder Cruz accepts a deal with Palermo, as expected. Goalkeeper Mathis Imbert also gets his first ever Dover start and young fullback Steve Reed starts for the first time this year and only the second time in a Dover kit. It’s a weak starting lineup but we should be just fine.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - M. Imbert
D - C. Guzman, M. Yilmaz, S. Nasri, S. Reed
M - Rafinha, E. Harvey, A. Rocca, G. Allan
S - S. Andrea, Z. Bardi
Bench - S. Loucif, R. Hamon, N. Cairney, G. Fanfoni, H. Cruz, L. Kunchev, A. Broomes

The Saints are in a flat 4-4-2 as well with Dimitris Efthymiadis up front with Doesburg. John Ruddy is in goal again. A number of players, including veteran Shanon Andrea, show overconfidence so I demand a victory in the team talk to wake them up a bit. There is no excuse for complacency with a group of backups.

5’ - Shanon Andrea with a weak shot from the outer edge of the area and it’s right at Ruddy. Easy stop.

22’ - Southampton with possession deep in our end and their captain Marco Ezio Fossati with a delightful through ball to Doesburg and he makes no mistake, putting the ball past Imbert and the Saints lead. SOUTHAMPTON GOAL 0-1

HALFTIME - Complacency is a bitch. We hold 52% of possession and a 17-2 (4-1 on target) shot advantage and I tear into the team in the dressing room. I’m *this* close to taking out Shanon Andrea for his lackadaisical approach today but decide to keep him in for now.

49’ - And I’m glad I did keep him in. Zoltan Bardi wins a ball at midfield and sends in Andrea. He’s dribbling in on the left side but he is able to get his stronger right foot on the ball and put it into the short side, past Ruddy and the game is level! That’s Andrea’s 50th goal for Dover. DOVER GOAL 1-1

52’ - Doesburg gets free again and he’s got a step on Yilmaz but shoots WIDE. Ugh. Half of our team is still showing complacency. Incredible!

57’ - Steve Reed with a yellow card.

63’ - A double substitution, as Andrea Rocca and Steve Reed are out and in come Gian Marco Fanfoni and Helder Cruz. Cruz moves up to left midfield and Rafinha takes over at right fullback.

I change to an attacking mentality.

77’ - Andy Broomes is brought in for Zoltan Bardi.

85’ - Andrea with a corner and it’s headed out to Gian Marco Fanfoni. He shows incredible skill by hitting the ball on the volley and his bullet is off the crossbar!

86’ - We move to an OVERLOAD mentality.

87’ - Crazy. We have a throw in down the left and Carlos Guzman, who has been terrible today, missing numerous tackles, throws in to Cruz. Cruz lays it back out to Guzman, who crosses into the box and there is Shanon Andrea, sliding after the ball and sending it into the net past Ruddy. We have a lead. DOVER GOAL 2-1

Back to a control mentality.

90’+5 - Three minutes of added time but we have possession and the ref doesn’t blow the whistle. We cross into the box and Southampton are called for a foul. That’s a PENALTY. Needing one goal for a hat trick, up steps Shanon Andrea and he confidently hits the ball into the lower left hand corner. Ruddy doesn’t move and Andrea has his hat trick. DOVER GOAL 3-1

We make it to the League Cup finals once again!

Southampton 1 (1) - (10) 3 Dover
Goals - Shanon Andrea 3 (9.5)
Assists - Carlos Guzman (7.1), Zoltan Bardi (6.8)
Man of the Match - Shanon Andrea
Other Dover Notables - Steve Reed (7.1), Saber Nasri (7.2), Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz (7.1), Emmerson Harvey (7.0)
Attendance - 31,823

They end up edging us in possession with 51% but we outshoot them 24-6 (7-2 on target). I congratulate the team on making it to the finals once again and we’ll defend our League Cup title against either Manchester United or Burnley.



Transfer OUT

-- Helder Cruz accepts a contract offer from Palermo, closing off a £9,500,000 transfer deal with the Italian club. Cruz joined us last January for £2,500,000 from Sporting CP and he played 12 games last year, notching a single assist. This year, he got 9 starts and 17 total appearances, scoring two goals and adding two assists. He’s a fine player but he never was going to be a major asset here and getting a 7 million pound profit in only one year is just good business so well played to our chairman, I guess. I’m not overly pleased with our depth right now at the position but the transfer deadline is today.



League Cup Opponent

-- United beat Burnley 2-0 away and win 4-1 on aggregate. We will face United in the League Cup finals, as we look for our second consecutive championship. The game will be played on March 3rd at Wembley.



Dover U18 Update

-- Our youngsters beat Everton 4-1 in the U18 Cup Semi Finals behind goals from Gary Archer, Norberto Vazquez, Jim Ryan and an Everton own goal.



February Update

-- We have four Premier League match ups in February, facing Huddersfield (away), Wolves (home), Sheffield Wednesday (away) and Birmingham (away). We also have a fourth round FA Cup tie against Wolves at their stadium and a potential fifth round match later in the month. Finally, we start off the Champions League knockout stage with an away matchup against AZ at the end of the month. So seven matches this month.

-- A good month of training, with no negative reports. Rafinha and Chiquinho get positive notices from our senior team while Ben Patterson, Joshua Stokes and Matthew Neil get good reports from the U18 squad.



Premier League Monthly Awards

-- Chelsea winger Miguel Sousa wins Player of the Month honours.

-- Man City’s DM Kris Cotton wins Young Player of the Month while our own Paul Moses comes in third.

-- We won all six of our matches in January and I’m duly awarded as the Premier League Manager of the Month.



February Board Confidence Update

-- The board are absolutely delighted with the way I’m leading the team. Our convincing 10-1 aggregate win over Southampton in the League Cup semis is the highlight while the signing of Mathis Imbert is a slight disappointment.

-- We made a profit of £2.26 million last month.



Next Up

-- We are once again huge favourites, as we head to Wolverhampton to face Wolves in a fourth round FA Cup match.