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Old 01-09-2015, 12:06 AM   #613
NoSkillz
College Benchwarmer
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
Thu. July 17, 2025

Preseason Friendly
Dover vs. Rangers (Scotland Premier League)
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK

We welcome the defending Scottish Premier League champs to Crabble for our first home preseason friendly. I recognize their striker Niels Hendriks, who just came over from Derby this offseason. He’s been a prolific scorer for them in the past so I’m sure he’ll do well in Scotland.

We continue to rotate the squad as we prepare for the upcoming season. We have been a bit too cocky this offseason and I tell the team I expect a win today.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - Renato Gaucho, A. Torres, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - M. Pedersen, B. Raab, N. Cairney, G. Bolis
S - P. Moses, M. Lugo

Dover 4 - 1 Rangers
Goals - Paul Moses 2 (8.7), Ross Russell OG, Fernando Estrada PEN (7.4)
Assists - Manuel Lugo 2 (8.2), Neil Cairney (7.6), Fernando Estrada
Man of the Match - Paul Moses
Other Dover Notables - Rayane Hamon (7.3), Adrian Torres (7.4), Renato Gaucho (7.2), Gianluca Bolis (7.0), Mads Pedersen (7.3)
Attendance - 15,958

Back on track here, as Paul Moses continues his dominance in the preseason with two more goals and about five breakaways. We also got a great performance from U18 striker prospect Fernando Estrada, who was very noticeable in his 35 minutes with a penalty shot goal and a header that went in off Rangers defender Ross Russell. I continue to be impressed as well with 19 year old DC Adrian Torres, another new pickup. We continue to have troubles with our new players not speaking English but that will correct itself over time.



Transfer IN

-- It took awhile to get a work permit approved but we come to terms with Argentine national right midfielder Sergio De la Vega, completing a £7,000,000 transfer with Pachuca in Mexico!



This is a very exciting signing and I envision De la Vega giving incumbent Gianluca Bolis quite a push as the year goes on. He’s got decent speed and phenomenal skill and work rate and this signing is met with great fan fare by fans and the media. Fantastic! This ultimately means that Graham Allan, a versatile long-time backup, is expendable and I’ll likely look to move him out.



Loan OUT

-- We loan out talented prospect Felix Hernandez to Metalist on a season-long loan, getting about £350,000 as an upfront fee. Hernandez is a 3.5 level prospect and I hope he gets a decent amount of playing time to continue his development.



Next Up

-- We head to Ireland to take on Derry City in preseason action.
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