[NoSkillz]

Sun. March 1, 2026

League Cup - Final
Tottenham (5th in the Premier League) vs. Dover (1st in the Premier League)
Wembley, London, UK

Betting Odds: Tottenham: 11-5 Draw: N/A Dover: Evens (Favourites)
Past Meetings: 12W 4D 2L

Tottenham continue battle for Champions League play next year and have two great strikers up front in Jean Junior (23 goals) and Peter Jansen (19 goals). They are really struggling at the moment and haven’t won in six matches. They just got eliminated in the Europa League first knockout round by Hoffenheim.

We make a number of changes from the Newcastle disappointment, bringing Paul Moses and Manuel Lugo in at striker, Arsene Bamba and Benedikt Raab at midfield, Rafinha, Mwemere Mutesa and Salim Loucif in at defence and Ingo Wilke is back in goal. Flat 4-4-2 today and back to a control mentality, as we look to control the game and show why we deserve to win this competition.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - Rafinha, C. Contreras, M. Mutesa, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, B. Raab, S. De la Vega
S - P. Moses, M. Lugo
Bench - Renato Gaucho, R. Hamon, R. Lopez, E. Harvey, Jose, M. Pedersen, Chiquinho

Tottenham comes out in a very strange 4-2-1-2-1 formation with Jean Junior alone up front and two defensive central mids. Wild! I tell the team to bring home the title for our fans!

5’ - NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Paul Moses gets hurt trying to make a tackle and needs to come out. DISASTER. Chiquinho takes his place. DOVER INJURY: Paul Moses

25’ - These guys are killing us. Now it’s Sergio De la Vega with the dreaded cross of doom. He can continue for now but we’re getting banged up here!

37’ - OH MY GOD!!!!!! Now it’s Manuel Lugo going down and HE CAN’T CONTINUE EITHER! We are FUCKED!!! Three players with the cross of doom and I’m at a loss. We’ll need to move to a 4-2-3-1 formation and I bring in Jose at MC and move Benedikt Raab up to AMC. DOVER INJURY: Manuel Lugo

44’ - We win a corner and it’s Raab crossing to the far post and it’s Claudio Contreras sending a violent header through a maze of players and it’s IN! DOVER GOAL 1-0

HALFTIME - I feel empty inside even with a lead. Lugo and Moses are hurt and we can only pray they are only out for a short period of time. Spurs are dominating possession to the tune of 59% but we outshoot them 9-5 (4-1 on target). Lets hold on.

71’ - We have a corner but Spurs clear it out of the area. Jose sends a pass back into Mwemere Mutesa, who lays one off to Raab. From a poor angle, he takes the shot and Spurs keeper Zivko Kraljevic doesn’t even move as it goes past him and in! We have a cushion!! DOVER GOAL 2-0

Tottenham move into a 4-4-2 diamond formation.

We hold them off the rest of the way.

Tottenham 0 - 2 Dover
Goals - Claudio Contreras (8.7), Benedikt Raab (8.3)
Assists - Benedikt Raab, Mwemere Mutesa (8.2)
Man of the Match - Claudio Contreras
Other Dover Notables - Salim Loucif (7.3)
Attendance - 90,000

Spurs held 53% of overall possession but we outshot them 19-13 (6-3 on target).

DOVER WIN THE 2026 LEAGUE CUP!!!

-- That’s our third League Cup win in four years and we earn £103,000. The board aren’t overly impressed, saying they expected us to win the competition the whole time and now want to ensure our concentration is fully on League and Champions League play.

-- And now, the injuries. Oh my. Manuel Lugo broke his leg and will miss FIVE TO SIX MONTHS. Oh my fucking goodness. He is done for the year and he was just coming into his own. DOVER INJURY: Manuel Lugo - Broken Leg (5-6 months)

-- OH MY GOODNESS. Paul Moses has a hip injury and will miss TWO MONTHS. I am actually sick to my stomach right now. We are now down three strikers (Andy Broomes, Lugo and Moses) and Moses is likely done for the season as well. JUST SHOOT ME! DOVER INJURY: Paul Moses (Hip - 2 months)

-- Sure, keep piling on. Sergio De la Vega also got hurt and will miss 2-3 weeks with a groin strain. We win the League Cup but at what cost?!??? DOVER INJURY: Sergio De la Vega (groin strain: 2-3 weeks).



Board Confidence Update

-- The board are delighted as usual due to our stature increase. The FA Cup defeat is the negative.

-- We lost £2.25 million last month.



Injury Update

-- DEEP BREATH! Okay, we’re down three of our top four strikers and our main roster now has only Chiquinho and Zoltan Bardi up front. We decide to call up Fernando Estrada from the U18s. He has 58 goals (!!!) down there, is 18 years old but has a man’s body at 6’2” and 191 pounds. He’ll be on the bench to start but we’ll get him some playing time for sure. Bakary Kone could also see a call up at some point. Lugo is for sure done until next July or August, Broomes is out 6-8 weeks and Moses is out for two months and will be fortunate to get back before our season is over. Needless to say, we’re in a bit of a bind now.



Team of the Week

-- Manuel Lugo was named to the Premier League team of the week.



Reserves Update

-- With half our roster either away on international duty or injured, we field a weak squad against Arsenal’s reserves yet still win 4-0. Young midfielder Nathan Protheroe scores a goal and adds two assists to lead the way. Also scoring are Bakary Kone, Luis Miguel Garcia and Paolo Secchi.

-- And that win locks up our seventh straight Reserves league title.



International Update

-- I’m delighted to see that Renato Gaucho came on as a substitute in Spain’s 4-2 win over Paraguay, giving him his first ever senior team cap! Renato Gaucho is from Brazil and just earned Spanish citizenship so this is a huge honour.

-- Also gaining his first senior cap is fullback Rafinha!!! This was his first ever call-up from his native Brazil so talk about quick! Congratulations to Rafinha and Renato Gaucho!!!

-- Also gaining senior team caps were Neil Cairney (Scotland), Arsene Bamba (Ivory Coast), Zoltan Bardi (Hungary), Rodolfo Lopez and Claudio Contreras (Argentina), Salim Loucif (Algeria), Gianluca Bolis (Italy), Mwemere Mutesa (Rwanda), Chris Davies and Emmerson Harvey (England), Jose (Brazil), Mads Pedersen (Denmark) and Chiquinho (Belgium).

-- Gaining youth caps are Jonathan Langlet (France U21), Adrian Torres (Spain U21), Juan Jose Culebras (Spain U20) and Cheikh Gueye (Senegal U20). Gueye recently got the call from Senegal despite being born in France so he’s now tied to Senegal at the youth level.



Next Up

-- I QUIT!! Ok, kidding. Liverpool away as we try to get back on the winning track in league play despite being rare underdogs.