[NoSkillz]

Sat. December 21, 2024

Barclays Premier League
Dover (11-2-3, 35 points, 3rd) vs. Wolves (5-3-9, 18 points, 14th)
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK

Betting Odds: Dover: 2-5 (Favourites) Draw: 11-4 Wolves: 13-2
Past Meetings: 11W 3D 1L

Historically, we’ve simply destroyed these guys, with only one loss in 15 games and 43 goals scored. The club has played four years in a row in the top flight and for 15 of the last 16 years, with the only blip being their lone Championship winning season in 2020/21. Guy Luckett has traditionally been their top scorer but only has two this season. Stefano Zeno leads the club with 7 goals. Evgeni Maltsev is always dangerous against us at left midfield.

We’ll go with a pretty full strength squad today but I do worry about complacency, as we’re huge favourites. Manuel Perez is back in goal and Andy Broomes is up front with Chiquinho. Arsene Bamba is still working on his stamina so Mads Pedersen will start on the left wing today.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - M. Perez
D - Renato Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - M. Pedersen, B. Raab, Jose, G. Bolis
S - A. Broomes, Chiquinho
Bench - Rafinha, S. Nasri, A. Rocca, N. Cairney, A. Bamba, G. Allen, Z. Bardi

Flat 4-4-2 for Wolves, with Luckett and Zeno up front and Bas Hofstra in goal. As usual, lets do it for the home supporters!

3’ - We get a good chance but Wolves clear behind the net and give us a corner. Benedikt Raab sends a cross to the near post and Rayane Hamon directs the ball off a Wolves defender and IN! Beauty start! DOVER GOAL 1-0

8’ - Wolves have the ball in our end and we have a couple chances to clear but fail to do so. Guy Luckett takes a pass, cuts back to the middle and with his left foot, sends a ROCKET BLAST from just outside the area that goes past a diving Perez and in. What a SHOT! WOLVES GOAL 1-1

15’ - Wolves have a free kick from half way in our zone and defender Wiljan Sno sends a ball to the far post. Hamon misses the header but Evgeny Maltsev sure doesn’t and it’s a weak one past Perez and IN. Umm…this ain’t good! WOLVES GOAL 1-2

20’ - We’re pushing forward and Chiquinho sends the ball out wide to Gianluca Bolis. He dribbles into the area and crosses into the middle and the ball is forcefully headed home by Mads Pedersen. We pull level. DOVER GOAL 2-2

39’ - Salim Loucif gets hurt on a tackle and has the dreaded cross of doom above his head. He needs to come off - in comes Rafinha. DOVER INJURY: Salim Loucif

43’ - Once again, our defence is having trouble getting the ball out when under attack and it’s Luckett AGAIN, this time with a soft lob that is into the top corner past Perez and Wolves lead. Terrible defending and horrific goalkeeping… WOLVES GOAL 2-3

HALFTIME - Perez has been TERRIBLE in goal and we’re behind despite 51% of possession and an 11-6 (4-4 on target) shot advantage. I don’t go full throttle on my team talk but do question the team’s passion. Hopefully we can get things going here.

67’ - Incredible. We are just POURING ON THE PRESSURE but can’t get a shot on target. We make a double substitution, bringing in Zoltan Bardi and Andrea Rocca while taking out a nervous Benedikt Raab and an ineffective Andy Broomes. We need a goal!!!

70’ - Rocca makes an IMMEDIATE impact after coming on. A Chiquinho shot is turned behind the net by Hofstra and we win the corner. Rocca takes it and sends it to the middle, where it’s headed past the Wolves keeper by Hamon, his second of the game! We pull level once again! DOVER GOAL 3-3

Wolves pull back into a 4-5-1 formation.

Man - what a disappointing game. Terrible defence and brutal goalkeeping cost us in a game we should have dominated.

Dover 3 - 3 Wolves
Goals - Rayane Hamon 2 (9.2), Mads Pedersen (7.7)
Assists - Gianluca Bolis (6.9), Benedikt Raab (6.9), Andrea Rocca (6.9)
Man of the Match - Rayane Hamon
Other Dover Notables - Jose (7.0), Chiquinho (5.4), Andy Broomes (5.7)
Attendance - 22,077

Boy, Wolves just completely dominated the ball in the last 15 minutes and end up with 54% of overall possession in our building, quite an embarrassment! We outshoot them 21-8 (8-5 on target) but that simply wasn’t good enough and I tell the players as much in the dressing room. Broomes and Chiquinho were awful up front and Perez somehow gets a 6.6 rating despite sucking hard. A brutal result against a lower half squad we should be beating handily and we lose ground on the table as a result.

-- Captain Salim Loucif suffered a gashed leg in the game and will miss the next 1-2 weeks. DOVER INJURY: Salim Loucif (Gashed Leg - 10 days)

-- Man City beat Sunderland 4-1, Middlesbrough top Sheffield United 3-2 and Arsenal edge Reading 1-0. Man United top Newcastle 3-0 and Chelsea beat Blackpool 1-0 as pretty much everyone else in contention win. We drop into fourth place with the draw.

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - STANDINGS
(ALL TEAMS HAVE PLAYED 18 GAMES UNLESS NOTED)

1. Manchester United - 45 points
2. Chelsea - 40 points
3. Manchester City - 36 points
4. Dover - 36 points (after 17 games)
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5. Arsenal - 33 points
6. Middlesbrough - 32 points
7. Newcastle - 30 points
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U18 Update

-- So yeah, Alberto Velazquez is pretty good! He scores FIVE GOALS in our 7-1 drubbing of Crawley and gets a rare perfect 10.0 rating. Neil Evans and Darren Beckett also score.



Clause Money Coming In!

-- Former goalkeeper Mathis Imbert plays in his tenth game for Valencia and we get paid another £250,000 after including a games played clause in the transfer deal.



Injury Update

-- WOO! Superstar striker Paul Moses returns to full training after missing close to four months with a torn calf muscle. He will likely need some time to get up to speed but we only have one reserves game in the next month or so. Maybe I’ll schedule a closed door game with our reserves…

-- Salim Loucif is out for about a week or so with a gashed leg. Striker Manuel Lugo is still on the long-term injury list and won’t be back until sometime later in January.



Team of the Week

-- Defender Rayane Hamon makes the Barclays Premier League team of the week for his two goal performance.



Next Up

-- We have a huge Boxing Day matchup against rivals Arsenal at Crabble Athletic Ground.