[NoSkillz]

Sat. February 24, 2024

FA Cup - 5th Round
Dover (1st in Premier League) vs. Sunderland (11th in Premier League)
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK

Betting Odds: Dover: Evens (Favourites) Draw: 11-5 Sunderland: 11-5
Past Meetings: 5W 2D 4L

The oddsmakers must think our attention will be focused on our upcoming Champions League match against AZ next week, as we’re only slight favourites at home against mid-table Sunderland in FA Cup play. Looking at it now, I can see why - they are on a scintillating run of form, with an 11 game unbeaten streak. Wow! They have wins against Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool during that streak! Holy smokes. Striker Craig Flett continues to be their danger man, sitting with 12 goals on the season to lead the club. They have a number of great players, including Lucas Alba, George MacKenzie (a former Dover loanee) and midfielder Matt Barber, who I seemingly look at each year as a transfer target but shy away from Sunderland’s asking price. Connor Wickham also gives us fits.

We’ve had a week off and we’re pretty fit - our Champions League game is in three nights so I’ll be mindful of that today and possibly take some guys out to ensure they are ready for that game if this one is put away early. We’ll go with a pretty full strength side, with Andrea Rocca and Graham Allan getting starts along with Manuel Perez, who is trying to regain match fitness after missing a few weeks due to injury. Control mentality at home today.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - M. Perez
D - Renato Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, A. Rocca, G. Allan
S - P. Moses, Chiquinho
Bench - C. Guzman, S. Nasri, E. Harvey, G. Fanfoni, G. Bolis, Z. Bardi, S. Andrea

Sunderland come out in a flat 4-4-2 with Flett and Alba up front, Barber and MacKenzie in midfield and Sam Cowler in goal. I tell the players to perform for the home supporters today.

13’ - Chiquinho storms up the right side and feeds a through ball to Graham Allan. His hard shot is turned aside by Cowler.

26’ - Pretty tense game with lots of back and forth action but few shots on target. Alba races down the right and crosses into our area and there is Flett with a great header but Perez is well-positioned and makes the stop!

27’ - We have the ball in their end and Andrea Rocca makes a wonderful pass through to Chiquinho and he scores! But wait…OFFSIDES! The replay confirms it quite clearly - NO GOAL!

29’ - Flett gets through off a give and go and Perez makes a nice stop!

36’ - Sunderland take advantage of a Renato Gaucho giveaway and it’s George MacKenzie wiring a shot off the crossbar. Sunderland have taken the play to us in the last ten minutes.

40’ - Sunderland have a corner and Nico Santos crosses to the middle and there is Matt Barber, heading it past Perez and into the far corner of the net. Ugh. SUNDERLAND GOAL 0-1

HALFTIME - Another halftime deficit. We’re generally playing ok, with 58% of possession and a 9-5 (1-3 on target) shot advantage but we’re simply not getting shots on target. Paul Moses is nowhere to be found so far. I question the team’s passion and hope that riles them up. No mentality change for now…

46’ - Our guys look motivated after the team talk but Sunderland march right down field after the opening kick and it’s Alba driving one off the crossbar! Come on men!

51’ - Oh man. Neil Cairney with a ridiculous and reckless challenge and he’s given the straight RED CARD. We’re down to ten men. DOVER RED CARD - NEIL CAIRNEY

60’ - We make a double substitution, bringing in Gianluca Bolis for Graham Allan and also bringing in Emmerson Harvey for Renato Gaucho.

We move to a 3-4-2, with three DC’s.

73’ - We are generating absolutely nothing with ten men. Claudio Contreras with a yellow card now.

76’ - We move to an overload mentality and now have 2 DC’s, 2 WBs, 3 MC’s and 2 strikers.

They move to a 5-3-2 and hold us off. VERY poor and Neil Cairney’s ridiculous red card killed us here.

Dover 0 - 1 Sunderland
Goals -
Assists -
Man of the Match - Matt Barber (Sunderland MC - 8.0)
Other Dover Notables - Salim Loucif (7.0), Rayane Hamon (7.1), Claudio Contreras (7.0), Chiquinho (7.3)
Attendance - 17,430

Despite being at ten men for most of the second half, we still held 52% of overall possession and outshot them 16-12 (1-3 on target). One measly shot on goal though. Paul Moses is in a mini-slump and only got a 6.1 rating today.

-- Neil Cairney gets an automatic one game suspension for his vicious foul and I fine him two weeks wages, which he accepts without incident. I expect him to get at least one more game after the FA review it. The play was UGLY!

-- Our club record unbeaten streak ends at 26 games. Bah.



Dover U18 Update

-- Jim Ryan scores twice and we get goals from Steven Miller, Matthew Neil and a Portsmouth own goal in a 5-2 win.



Next Up

-- We head 179 miles from home as we begin Champions League knockout stage play against Dutch club AZ Alkmaar.