[NoSkillz]

Tue. November 29, 2022

League Cup - Quarterfinals
Dover (2nd in Premier League) vs. West Ham (3rd in League 1)
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK

Betting Odds: Dover: 1-4 (Favourites) Draw: N/A West Ham: 9-1
Past Meetings: 3W 0D 0L

We are MONSTER favourites at home versus League 1 promotion contenders West Ham. They are only one point back of division leaders Barnsley but are a defence first club, scoring only 23 goals in their 18 league matches. Their top scorer is striker Iain Beddard and winger Mel Hawkins is also someone to watch. Still, we should smoke these guys.

I'm starting a pretty full compliment of backups today but a few key players in slumps will start, namely Gianluca Bolis and Chiquinho, who has gone five games without a goal. Hopefully, playing some weaker opponents will get them on their games. Paul Moses will be up front with Chiquinho.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - M. Perez
D - R. Gaucho, D. Traore, M. Yilmaz, K. Zagos
M - S. Henni, G. Fanfoni, S. Spall, G. Bolis
S - P. Moses, Chiquinho
Bench - Carlos Guzman, S. Reed, E. Harvey, A. Rocca, G. Allan, W. Rooney, Z. Bardi

West Ham line up in a defensive 4-5-1 with Beddard alone up front. Former Dover prospect right midfielder Ismail Mkhize is starting as well for the Hammers. Jonny Holden is in goal and I hope we test him early and often. I tell the team I want a great performance for the supporters today. Lets entertain them and I tell Paul Moses to pick up where he left off last game.

1' - Right off the bat we move in and Henni's shot is right at Holden.

7' - Chiquinho storms down the right flank and crosses into Moses but his header is over the bar.

36' - Wow. Nothing happening against a League 1 side? Embarrassing! Fanfoni sends in Henni and Holden makes a spectacular save to keep it scoreless. Where are Chiquinho and Moses??

41' - Speaking of the devil. West Ham have a goal kick and Daniel Traore wins a header up field and over the defence. Chiquinho wins the race and shoots and the ball is off Holden and just into the corner of the goal. DOVER GOAL 1-0

43' - Traore takes down Beddard and is given a yellow card.

HALFTIME - We are playing down to our competition and have actually allowed a League 1 team in our stadium hold a 54% possession edge! Disgraceful. We do outshoot them 10-1 (4-0 on target). I encourage the players instead of peeling paint like I really want and pull aside Bolis (6.1 at half) to tell him I'm angry with his lack of passion today.

52' - Bolis dribbles all the way from the right flank at half into the centre of the box but his shot is right at Holden and he saves easily.

53' - Kostas Zagos with a yellow card.

55' - And now Bolis with the yellow. Ugh.

59' - Moses finally does something, dribbling into the area and shooting with his left foot but Holden makes the diving stop.

62' - We are getting chances and now it's Bolis cutting in and shooting right at the keeper. Another easy stop.

64' - I take out Shaun Spall and bring in U18 player Emmerson Harvey.

70' - Fanfoni with a nice feed into Moses but his hard blast is again right at the keeper.

77' - Kostas Zagos with a brutal giveaway and Beddard gets a chance all alone in a play that looks terribly offsides but Perez makes the point blank stop.

79' - I'm livid with our performance. Zagos and Bolis are pulled and I bring in young Steve Reed and Graham Allan.

87' - Chiquinho with a fierce free kick but Holden is playing like God today and makes the stop.

88' - Allan with a corner and Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz heads it off the cross bar. Sigh. Off the ensuing goal kick, Yilmaz fouls his opposite number and is given a yellow, our fourth of the game.

Pretty pathetic display but we win.

Dover 1 - 0 West Ham
Goals - Chiquinho (7.2)
Assists - Daniel Traore (6.9)
Man of the Match - Jonny Holden (West Ham GK - 7.8)
Other Dover Notables - Manuel Perez (7.2), Kostas Zagos (7.1), Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz (7.2), Renato Gaucho (7.1), Gian Marco Fanfoni (7.1)
Attendance - 16,061

Holden was great for them but we made him look like a superstar, with shot after shot right at him. Possession was dead even for the match and we outshot them 26-8 (10-2 on target). Lets move on from this - I told the team in the room that the performance was terrible despite the positive result.



Injury Update

-- U18 left fullback Sebastien Kraft will miss a month with a back strain after a weight lifting session gone bad.



Dover Reserves Team Update

-- We get goals from young Emmerson Harvey and veteran Wayne Rooney in a comfortable 2-0 win over Fulham's Reserves.



December Update

-- We get a little bit of a break this month but still have plenty of action to consider, with five Premier League matches, four of which are at home (vs. Stoke, AT Birmingham, vs. Wolves, vs. Manchester City, vs. Everton), a Champions League group match at home versus Slovan Bratislava and a New Year's Eve FA Cup match at home versus Wolves again. So seven games in December and six of them are at home!

-- We get positive training reports for Gian Marco Fanfoni, Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz and Steve Reed and negative reports for Rayane Hamon and Wayne Rooney. Postive reports come in for U18 players Ben Lee, Ben Patterson and David Smith, with a negative report coming in for Shane Holmes.



November Premier League Awards

-- Sheffield Wednesday striker Steve Pates scores five goals in as many games to win the Player of the Month award.

-- Stephen Johnston from Man City wins Young Player of the Month honours.

-- Jurgen Klinsmann from United wins Manager of the Month honours for November and I come in third.



December Board Confidence Update

-- The board are delighted with the leadership qualities I'm demonstrating. Our stature increase is the main plus and our Champions League loss to Sevilla is the only disappointment.

-- We made a profit of £778,000 last month.



Legend to Retire

Wayne Rooney officially announces that he will be retiring at the end of the season "while in his prime". Ha! Well, he was awesome for us last year but he's simply not good enough to play much this year. Hopefully I can get him a couple games near the end of the year and maybe even a start at some point.



League Cup - Semi-Finals Draw

-- We once again draw Wolves in a cup match, as we'll face them here, in the FA Cup 3rd round and also in league play in December!



Contract Extension

-- We're delighted to lock up fine young fullback Renato Gaucho for an additional three years! He sees his salary skyrocket to £24,500 per week but the 21 year old has consistently played at a high level since joining our team three years ago.



Next Up

-- We host relegation candidates Stoke City in Premier League play.