[NoSkillz]

Sat. February 17, 2024

Barclays Premier League
Birmingham (4-7-16, 19 points, 17th) vs. Dover (21-5-1, 68 points, 1st)
St. Andrews, Birmingham, UK

Betting Odds: Birmingham: 7-1 Draw: 3-1 Dover: 1-3 (Favourites)
Past Meetings: 5W 0D 1L

Birmingham surprisingly avoided the drop after getting promoted to the Premier League last year, finishing in 17th and they are in the same perilous position this year, only one point from the relegation zone. They are winless in eight and will need to fight hard to stay afloat but their chances are grim, to say the least, against our in-form club. Birmingham have trouble scoring, with striker Adam Sinnott leading the club with only 6. Midfielder/striker Joe Mason is second with only 3 goals. They brought in three players in January to help keep them up in deals totalling just over £1.5 million: Michal Lipinski from Swindon, Henryk Baranowski from Lech and Paul Brennan from Raith.

With three games in seven days, we continue to rotate the squad. Paul Moses is back in today and will be alongside Chiquinho. Rafinha is back in for his third consecutive start, only this time he’ll play at left midfield as we rest Arsene Bamba, who was called out by the Birmingham manager and therefore will get a rest! Jose is starting for the first time in three games and the rest of our starters are all back in today.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - Renato Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - Rafinha, N. Cairney, Jose, G. Bolis
S - P. Moses, Chiquinho
Bench - C. Guzman, M. Yilmaz, E. Harvey, G. Fanfoni, G. Allan, L. Kunchev, S. Andrea

Birmingham are also in a flat 4-4-2 and have Sam Vokes up front with Sinnott. Edwin Leferink is in goal and former Dover midfielder Arron Williams is also starting. We’re showing some overconfidence in the warmups and I tell the team I expect a win today.

8’ - Gianluca Bolis with our first great chance, as he cuts in from the right side but his shot is harmless and right at Leferink.

10’ - We’re all over them and now it’s Cairney getting off a piledriver from just outside the area off a cleared corner and Leferink makes a great stop.

12’ - Adam Sinnott gets the ball and is being marked by Rayane Hamon. Hamon attempts the tackle and misses and Sinnott walks in all alone. Wilke comes out to challenge and Sinnott abruptly stops, waits for Wilke to go down then simply lifts the ball over his body and it’s IN! Umm, that’s a shocker! BIRMINGHAM GOAL 0-1

26’ - Bolis dribbles down the right and crosses into the box. It gets deflected right onto the foot of Paul Moses and his quick shot is saved brilliantly by Leferink! Wow!

HALFTIME - Wow. Not what we expected! We hold 54% of possession and a 13-5 (9-2 on target) shot advantage. We’re controlling play and getting shots but too many are from distance. I contemplate reading the riot act but go with a slightly less imposing “I expect more from you” team talk. We’ll contemplate a mentality change if things don’t improve quickly.

50’ - Chiquinho gets a chance with a hard blast but the excellent Leferink makes the stop and his defence clear the rebound.

53’ - We have possession at midfield and Jose gets it up to Chiquinho. Two men are marking Paul Moses and that allows Chiquinho to take a couple steps in and drill a curling blast that is past the outstretched arms of Leferink and goes IN! Great strike from Chiquinho, his 20th of the season and we finally break through! DOVER GOAL 1-1

59’ - Another great Jose pass sees Chiquinho through and he’s in on goal. His shot beats Leferink but rattles hard off the goal post! Ohhh…so close!

70’ - We take out Rafinha and bring in Graham Allan. We also move to an overload mentality.

75’ - Allan runs down the left and attempts a cross but it hits defender Alex Harris, deflects over Leferink and goes into the far corner of the net! An own goal and we take the lead! DOVER GOAL 2-1

We immediately move back to a control mentality.

77’ - We have a free kick and Jose’s cross is booted hard by Rayane Hamon but Leferink makes another enormous save!

80’ - I take out an ineffective and tired Paul Moses and bring in Shanon Andrea.

86’ - Cairney with another trademark blast off the crossbar! Boy, he does that so much…

90’ - Cairney with a pass to Andrea and his shot is weak and right at the Birmingham keeper.

A little too close for comfort but we pull it out against a very game Birmingham side.

Birmingham 1 - 2 Dover
Goals - Chiquinho (7.7), Alex Harris OG
Assists - Jose 2 (7.6)
Man of the Match - Chiquinho
Other Dover Notables - Rayane Hamon (7.1), Claudio Contreras (7.0)
Attendance - 14,041

We end up with 56% of possession and a 26-7 (13-2 on target) shot advantage. Jose continues to be a playmaker extraordinaire and we pull out a really tough win.

-- Our friends over at Sheffield Wednesday hold Chelsea to a draw, allowing us to expand our lead by another two points! Spurs draw against Newcastle, Liverpool beat Middlesbrough and United finally grab a win, beating Blackpool 3-1. Manchester City are also STUNNED by Sunderland 1-0. This whole season is like a DREAM for us!


BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - STANDINGS
(ALL TEAMS HAVE PLAYED 28 GAMES UNLESS NOTED)

1. Dover - 71 points
2. Manchester United - 57 points
3. Chelsea - 57 points
4. Tottenham - 56 points
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5. Liverpool - 55 points
6. Manchester City - 54 points
7. Middlesbrough - 48 points
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Premier League Team of the Week

-- Neil Cairney and Shanon Andrea are both named to the Barclays Premier League team of the week.



Champions League Update

-- Knockout stage play begins with Barcelona winning 2-1 over Arsenal, OM beating Palermo 2-0, Chelsea edging Ajax 2-1 and Real Madrid getting past Bursaspor 3-2.



Dover Injury Update

-- Rafinha gets hurt during training, suffering a damaged foot and he’ll miss about two weeks of action. Poor timing.



Dover Reserves Team Update

-- We play our first reserves game in almost a month and destroy Derby 6-0 behind a superb Andy Broomes hat trick. Also scoring are Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz, Gian Marco Fanfoni and Zoltan Bardi. Steve Reed and Lyubomir Kunchev had two assists each.



Next Up

-- We head home and host Sunderland in a fifth round FA Cup match.