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Old 11-13-2013, 11:47 PM   #30
NoSkillz
College Benchwarmer
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
2016/17 npower League 1 Results

To show the club I meant business this year, I ramped up the quality of our opponents during our preseason friendlies, with matches against Celtic, a traditional Scottish powerhouse and two Premier League teams in Liverpool and Aston Villa. We'd defeat Celtic 1-0 but lose home games to both Liverpool and AV 3-1. Still, I felt like it was better preparation for the year ahead.

Our first game was a 1-0 away loss to Plymouth in an evenly played match but our second game was a 6-0 annihilation of Torquay in the League Cup 1st Round. That was the start of an 8-game winning streak across all competitions. We were in solid position on the table by October 1st and that's when we really hit our stride.

We'd go undefeated for 17 GAMES in all competitions, at one point winning 13 games in a row! Our new 4-4-2 DM formation (ie: 4-2-3-1) was a huge success and we were scoring goals at an unprecedented rate for our club.

We'd hit the inevitable rough patch in December and kind of languish for two months at .500 football but we'd hit another hot streak in February, going another 11 matches without a defeat.

On April 8th, with four league games and almost a month remaining in the season, we'd travel to our hated rivals Gillingham and throttle them 4-0.

We'd battled hard for three years in League 1 but those three points were enough to guarantee Dover promotion out of League 1 and into the npower Championship for 2017-18!

One week later, in front of our home crowd at Crabble Athletic Ground, we again prevailed by a 4-0 score, this time over Barnet and that was enough to lock up the npower League 1 title for 2016-17!

Championship…here we come!



npower League 1 2016-17 League Awards

Top Goalscorer: Michael Chopra, Cardiff - 30
Most Assists: Arsene Bamba, Dover - 22
Highest Average Rating: Robert Kerkhof, Dover - 7.57 (32 apps)
Most Man of Match Awards: Robert Kerkhof, Dover - 8
Manager of the Year: NoSkillz, Dover

npower League 1 Player's Team of the Year
GK - Ingo Wilke, Dover
DL - Luke Garbutt, Cardiff
DC - Luke McCullough, Dover
DC - Steven Paulle, Swansea
DR - Angel Rangel, Swansea
ML - Steve Boyle, Portsmouth
MC - Mark Browne, Cardiff
MC - Andrea Rocca, Dover
MR - Elliott Bennett, Peterborough
ST - Michael Chopra, Cardiff
ST - Alain Baclet, Plymouth

Arsene Bamba led the league in helpers but unheralded Robert Kerkhof was incredible for us this year, leading the league in average rating and MoM awards.

Ingo Wilke was honoured for a second consecutive year as the best keeper in League 1 and had some Dover company! Luke McCullough finally fulfilled his huge promise with a wonderful season at centre halfback and Arsenal loanee Andrea Rocca was immense in the central midfield. More on these players in a bit.

I'd win League 1 Manager of the Month in November and April and also get the great honour of being League 1 Manager of the Year for 2016-17.

Our club would set a few League 1 records that still stand today: Most Team Points (99) and Most Team Goals (113).

Cup Competitions 2016-17

FA Cup -
We had a pretty easy road to the third round this year, with cupcake matchups against Conference teams Mansfield and Lewes in round 1 and 2 respectively. That easy road got substantially tougher with a third round matchup against Premier League side Southampton.

Despite being a last place club in the BPL, it was still a hefty step up in opponents for us and we'd lose a close match away at St. Mary's Stadium to get knocked out of the competition.

1st Round - Mansfield 1 Dover 4
2nd Round - Dover 3 Lewes 0
3rd Round - Southampton 1 Dover 0

League Cup
We'd have our best showing in League Cup competition in 2016-17, starting with the massacre of Torquay that I mentioned above. Our second round tie was a personal grudge match against Birmingham. If you recall, I was considered a front-runner for a potential opening there but the club would ultimately decide to keep manager Luis Garcia Plaza, leaving me no choice but to continue forward with Dover.

Needless to say, this was a match I was geared up to win and we would do just that, heading into the Championship side's own stadium and defeating them 3-2. We'd draw Liverpool away in the 3rd round, the second meaningful cup tie against them in two years and this time it was no contest, as we'd drop a heavy decision to bow out of the competition.

1st Round - Torquay 0 Dover 6
2nd Round - Birmingham 2 Dover 3
3rd Round - Liverpool 4 Dover 1

Johnstone's Paint Trophy
We were defending champions of this event and had another great run this year.

We'd dominate two road matches against Brighton and Gillingham in the first two rounds then prevail in two consecutive home ties against Cardiff and Swansea. That set up a 2-leg semi-final against Colchester and we'd win convincingly to head to our second straight final.

We'd draw Walsall in that final but lose a bore 1-0 decision in front of 31756 at Wembley Stadium, missing out on our chance to add a fifth cup win to our record.

1st Round - Brighton 0 Dover 4
2nd Round - Gillingham 0 Dover 3
South Quarterfinal - Dover 2 Cardiff 1
South Semi Final - Dover 2 Swansea 0
South Final (Leg 1) - Dover 2 Colchester 0
South Final (Leg 2) - Colchester 0 Dover 1 (Dover wins 3-0 on aggregate)
Final - Dover 0 Walsall 1

2016-17 Overall Dover Statistics

Top Goalscorer: Robert Kerkhof - 24
Top League Goalscorer: Robert Kerkhof - 22
Most Assists: Arsene Bamba - 25
Highest Average Rating: Robert Kerkhof - 7.50 (36 apps)
Most Man of Match Awards: Robert Kerkhof - 8
Fans Player of the Year: Luke McCullough

Kerkhof was sensational but McCullough, who has been with the club since 2012, finally breaks out and is a deserving winner of the supporters award.

2016-17 Dover Best Eleven

GK - Ingo Wilke - 40 apps 0g 6.97 avg
DL - Aziz Deen-Conteh - 27 apps 1g 7.09 avg
DC - Luke McCullough - 40 apps 8g 7.43 avg
DC - Oliver Nicholas - 43 apps 2g 7.27 avg
DR - Conor Morrissey - 24 apps 0g 7.15 avg
AML - Arsene Bamba - 38 apps 7g 7.31 avg
MC - Isco - 28 apps 7g 7.09 avg
MC - Jamal Yildirim - 39 apps 4g 7.04 avg
AMR - Craig Moore - 26 apps 5g 7.10 avg
AMC - Andrea Rocca - 46 apps 14g 7.32 avg
ST - Robert Kerkhof - 36 apps 24g 7.50 avg

Other notables: GK Martin Read 19 apps 0g 6.74; DC David Ogilby 21 apps 2g 7.02; DC Sam Barnett 1 apps 1g 7.30; DR Jackson Ramm 35 apps 0g 7.14; ST Aaron Green 27 apps 11g 7.17; ST Zoltan Bardi 32 apps 14g 7.15; ST Simon Rideout 16 apps 8g 7.28

GK -
Ingo Wilke wasn't quite up to his standards set last year but didn't need to be, as we practically scored at will this year. Martin Read was just okay as a backup.

D -
Without question, one of the finest defensive showings in my tenure. Everyone was excellent but it was truly a breakout year for Luke McCullough, with 8 goals and 6 assists from a centre half position. He was a dominating presence all season long.

M -
Once again, it was the loanees that stuck out the most. We knew what we were getting with Arsene Bamba and again, he didn't disappoint but Andrea Rocca was essentially the main cog in our offensive attack, scoring 14 times and adding 15 assists. Jamal Yildirim was excellent in a defensive role. Craig Moore is a former U18 signing who took advantage of injuries to regular starter Keith King to get additional playing time.

F -
We had incumbents like Aaron Greene and Craig Beattie along with high-profile loan additions in Zoltan Bardi and Simon Rideout. In the end, it was my fifth striker at the start of the season, Robert Kerkhof, who ended up dominating up front. Injuries took their toll on Greene and Rideout especially, forcing Kerkhof into the lineup and he started scoring immediately to the point where I simply couldn't take him out of the lineup. He definitely overachieved based on the scouting reports but you can't argue with the results: despite playing alone up front in our 4-2-3-1 formation, he'd score 22 goals and add 12 assists in only league 32 games, perhaps one of the great individual seasons in Dover history. Overall, our strikers were absolutely sensational all year.

Year-End Financials



Our turnover was very similar to last year but costs went up dramatically, with most of that spent on wages. We'd lose close to 400K on the year but the board certainly wasn't going to complain with our results! We still had a positive bank balance and we'd hopefully reap greater financial rewards in the Championship next year.

Closing Thoughts

Perhaps my finest year of management yet - I feel like I found something with the exciting new attacking formation we went to almost exclusively in the middle of the season. I'd likely have to look at grabbing some more attacking midfielders next year if we want to continue running this style of play but we'll look into that before the season starts. A plus 71 goal differential!!! Just beautiful football to watch!

We've finally taken that step up to the Championship - we're only one more promotion away from the big time! I'm going to press the board now, more than ever before, to make the appropriate commitments to me and the lads if we're to take that final step.
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