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Sat. July 7, 2018
Preseason Friendly
Queen’s Park vs. Oxford United (Sky Bet English League One)
Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland
Oxford United are a pretty fascinating team with a wild history – they seem to have hit their peak back in the mid-80s, with consecutive 1st place finishes in both League One (83/84) and the Championship (84/85) to secure promotion to the Premier League. They’d last three years in England’s top flight but for the last 30+ years, have bounced around between the Championship, League One and League Two. 2018/19 will be their third consecutive year in League One and they are coming off a 16th place finish last year, with the media predicting an upper mid-table finish this season.
I continue to look at trialists and will be going with a “C” level lineup today and once again will stick with the same tactical approach as our previous two games.
Queen’s Park: 4-2-3-1 Gegenpress (Positive Mentality)
GK – J. Hart
D – S. Robertson (trialist), R. Breen (trialist), D. Nimmo, K. McDowell (trialist)
M – D. Thomas, G. Fotheringham
AM – Y. Galantes (trialist), M. Stowe (trialist) G. Savoury (trialist)
S – E. MacPherson
Queen’s Park 0 - 1 Oxford
Goals –
Assists –
Player of the Match – Ricky Holmes (Oxford – 7.2)
Other Dover Notables – Jordan Hart (7.0), Sam Robertson (6.0)
Attendance – 652 (109 away)
-- The scoreline flatters us here, as we got spanked in all facets by Oxford in this one. We held 48% of possession and shots were 3-20 (2-9 on target) in their favour. There were practically no positive highlights all game, other than the fine play by our starting keeper, Jordan Hart. I’m starting to make final cuts in the next week and finalize signings so we’ll have stronger lineups in our last two friendlies before the Betfred Cup begins in a couple weeks.
Transfers IN - U18 Team
ST – Connor Higgins (from Partick Thistle) – 18 years old, Scotland
-- A 3.5/4.0 rated poacher that may start with our U18s but he certainly has the class to play with our senior team already.
Transfers IN - U18 Team
DC – Harry Granger (from Partick Thistle) – 18 years old, Scotland
DR – Cameron Lumsden (from St. Johnstone) – 18 years old, Scotland
DR – Danny O’Halloran (from Hamilton Academical) – 18 years old, Scotland
DR – Sam Robertson (from Aberdeen) – 18 years old, Scotland
DM – Kyle Devlin – Free – 15 yeards old, Scotland
MC – Kieran Balfour (from Ayr United) - 18 years old, Scotland
MC – Taylor Berry (from Dundee) – 18 years old, Scotland
ST – Jamie Docherty (from St. Johnstone) – 18 years old, Scotland
-- Just adding more depth where I can.
Players RELEASED
GK – Jack Dunlop
MC – Dean Kindlan
AMR – Dan Kindlan
ST – Euan East
-- All four of these players were offseason signings prior to my arrival and none have the class to feature on our senior team, so they are given their outright release.
Roster Update
-- We still have 42 players with our senior team, with 14 of them being trialists. Still lots of decisions to make before we start our season and I’m still not overly satisfied with our depth at certain positions, with attacking midfield being my biggest concern.
Next Up -
-- Yet another challenging friendly, as we host Heart of Midlothian, yet another Premiership mainstay.
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