[NoSkillz]

Sat. May 17, 2025

Barclays Premier League
Dover (26-5-5, 83 points, 2nd) vs. Everton (13-5-18, 44 points, 12th)
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, England

Betting Odds: Dover: 4-6 (Favourites) Draw: 9-4 Everton: 7-2
Past Meetings: 9W 2D 4L

Everton seemingly have settled into a lower mid-table club, currently sitting 12th after years of 13th, 12th and 11th in the past three years. Full marks for consistency I guess. They are having issues scoring goals this year, with team leader Mike Hall sitting with 11. Midfielder Daniele Bentivoglio has 10 and is a world-class player I’ve often admired. They are obviously looking forward to next year so we are big favourites today.

It’s our last home game of the year and with only one point needed in our last two games to lock up second spot, we’ll go for it today and hope to use depth players in our final Premier League game next week against Arsenal. Ingo Wilke will start today and I’ll also try to get an appearance in for Andrea Rocca, as he’s still unsigned and this may be his last game at home in a Dover uniform unless I can get a more reasonable deal from his agent. Saber Nasri once again starts on defence and an unfit Arsene Bamba will start at left midfield.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - Renato Gaucho, C. Contreras, S. Nasri, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, B. Raab, Jose, G. Bolis
S - A. Broomes, Chiquinho
Bench - Rafinha, M. Mutesa, N. Cairney, A. Rocca, M. Pedersen, G. Allan, M. Lugo

Flat 4-4-2 for Everton today with Chris Wood up front with Hall. Franco Di Capua is their keeper. Lets finish off the year well for our supporters.

HALFTIME - We are absolutely DOMINATING this game but just can’t score. 58% of possession and a crazy 16-3 (4-0 on target) shot advantage. We’re outplaying them everywhere and I implore the team to keep pressing.

50’ - The only switch we made at half was a small one, moving Chiquinho over to the left in our “advanced” role and shifting Andy Broomes into the holding role. We head a ball up field and a 50/50 ball is won by Chiquinho. His marker goes down and is hurt but Chiquinho has a partial breakaway and moves in. Di Capua makes the save but the rebound pops out to the oncoming Broomes and he makes no mistake and we finally break through. DOVER GOAL 1-0

55’ - We take off the fitness challenged Arsene Bamba and bring in Mads Pedersen.

58’ - Chiquinho makes a brilliant run down the left flank and feeds Brooomes for the easy goal but Broomes was JUST offsides. NO GOAL.

59’ - Aaaannnnd…it doesn’t matter. Seconds later, we regain the ball and Jose moves it up to Broomes. He has his back to the goal, turns near the edge of the area and fires a shot into the top corner past Di Capua for the stunner! DOVER GOAL 2-0

63’ - Tit for tat, as Chris Wood gets loose in our area and scores but he’s WAY offsides. Again, NO GOAL!

72’ - We take out Jose and bring in Andrea Rocca.

Everton move to a 4-4-2 diamond.

87’ - Neil Cairney comes on to replace Benedikt Raab.

Very good.

Dover 2 - 0 Everton
Goals - Andy Broomes 2 (9.0)
Assists - Jose (6.9), Chiquinho (7.3)
Man of the Match - Andy Broomes
Other Dover Notables - Ingo Wilke (7.0), Salim Loucif (7.1), Saber Nasri (7.5), Claudio Contreras (7.3), Renato Gaucho (7.4), Benedikt Raab (7.0)
Attendance - 23,000 (Sell-Out)

We held 53% of possession and a 30-6 (12-2 on target) shot advantage. Superb game from Broomes.

-- Chelsea could only manage a 1-1 draw against Liverpool so our result didn’t even matter, as we would have finished in 2nd place regardless. The Manchester derby sees a 2-2 draw, Arsenal continue their free-fall with a 2-0 loss to Aston Villa and Reading move into the top 7 with a 3-0 win over Sheffield United.


BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - STANDINGS
(ALL TEAMS HAVE PLAYED 37 GAMES UNLESS NOTED)

1. Manchester United - 91 points
2. Dover - 86 points
3. Chelsea - 79 points
4. Manchester City - 69 points
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5. Tottenham - 61 points
6. Arsenal - 61 points
7. Reading - 56 points
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Premier League Team of the Week

-- Andy Broomes makes the Premier League team of the week for the second week in a row.



Dover Injury News

-- Wow, a flurry of information coming in. First of all, the good news: superstar striker Paul Moses returns to full training after missing three months with a torn calf muscle. He’s missed a total of SEVEN MONTHS this season, injuring the same leg twice. The bad news is that midfielder Jose is hurt by teammate Saber Nasri during training, fracturing his cheekbone and he’ll be out for a month, thereby missing both our league finale AND the FA Cup final. A tough blow. Rayane Hamon is still out with a strained wrist but should return soon while Zoltan Bardi (torn knee ligaments) is out until next season. DOVER INJURY: Jose (fractured cheekbone - 4 weeks)



International News

-- We see a news item that indicates that Neil Cairney is “left out in the cold” by Scotland manager Darren Ferguson for an upcoming set of international games. Cairney has been a bit of an afterthought this year for us, having seen his starting job taken by sensational newcomer Benedikt Raab but he still has made 32 appearances for us, scoring four goals and adding 8 assists. Cairney is only 25, in the prime of his career and this is a huge blow to his ego, I’m sure. He’s made 51 appearances for Scotland internationally, scoring 8 times. Perhaps this will motivate him going forward, as I’ll likely need him to start in our FA Cup final against Tottenham now that Jose is hurt.



Next Up

-- We finish off our Premier League season with an away match against Arsenal.