Dover 1 Sutton 1

[johnnie1]

The podcast is now up

[billzeebub]

See you there chaps/esses...in Ripple tonight, heading to Deal tomorow and looking forward to the match Saturday...unfortunately brother (despite being born and bred Suttonite) is now a Doverian, so it could end in slaps!!..

[Chalmers]

Those who have twitter can follow the game on @dafclivetext if interested

[dontpanic]

FT 1-1

[Stewart]

What a great game. Sutton were the better side for the majority of the game. Dover took the lead soon after we went down to ten men. We did wobble for a few minutes then took the game to Dover again with Chris Benjamin getting the equaliser on 90 mins. We thought CD got the winner but it was ruled offside.

[bornatotter]

First up. If we had got nothing out of this game it would have been a miscarriage of justice on a such a scale we probably would have had a fair claim to the European court of human rights.
Had to swerve the booze cruise debut due to a potentially lethal combination of a groin strain and marital coercion , although to be fair mrs totter was pulled in for a night shift saving lives so it was into the truck for the 2 4 6 8 motorway cruise down to the white cliffs.
Both the new lads were straight into the team and I thought we looked much better balanced although still short of that elusive and proven striker but that berth is one for filling for next season now I suspect.
A steady start in front of a thousand plus crowd at crabble with honours even in the early sparring. Once again foulksy looked a handful driving down the right. Dover really did look limited by comparison and dundo should have had us in front with a free header piled wide and Harry b narrowly missed out in a race for a ball across the six yard box that was begging to be bundled home. Our lads were working well with Dover pretty much reduced to the odd raid on the break or a bit of old route one, proving for me that this is a decidedly average BSS if they are genuine promotion contenders.
Just before the break Ali hit a corker that smashed back off the bar as once again the luck was against us.
Second half started more of the same although having queued up half hour, yes half a bleedin hour, for a slipper and a cup of splosh I had a decent view from the side of just how easily we were opening Dover up wide right and again a bunch of decent balls in went begging. This mob were there for the taking.
Then we were plunged back into the kind of clouseau style officiating that drives you nuts. If a player can go in for a challenge, make clean contact with the entire ball, not touch the other player and still get a straight red then the world has gone mad. I knew we were in trouble when the busy little twit of a Lino got himself involved In my experience the minute one of those busy wannabes sticks his oar in its because he wants to influence the match and it was his call that got Deano sent off.
But even with ten men we were playing all the football but Dover got another big slice of luck, Tom flapped a bit at a couple of balls in and it eventually it dropped for them and it was buried in the net.
This sutton side has got some bollocks though. We kept going forward and on ninety minutes we got the just reward when chris b hit a cracker that the keeper could only palm into the top corner. We went nuts. But still there was more. Only one team was pressing for the winner and after a succession of sutton corners dundo pulled out a superb finish only to be ruled offside by captain bloody stupid and his happy flag.
Anyway, a great battling performance and if we keep up this intensity we are in for a sparkling finish to the season. Driving home ran into a snow storm. Happy Easter.

[Paul L]

1-1, Chris Benjamin's strike:




Dundo's ruled out goal:




The Dover scoreboard 4 minutes after our equaliser:

[markf]

Pretty good summing up by Mr T above. I thought Dover had the first 15 mins but U's grew into the game and once again Jamie was making inroads down the right flank. However, we just couldn't get anything meaningful on goal until newboy Ali struck the bar late in the half.

Second half and U's were playing some reat stuff, with Dean Sinclair a massive influence on proceedings. Then, one tackle, which I would love to see on any highlights package and we're down to 10. The ref gave us very little all afternoon - came across as your stereotypical homer - and put under considerable pressure from a Dover side struggling to look like a 3rd place team brought out the red card.

Almost immediately, Dover scored and it looked curtains. Harry O came on for Dover and was clean through but Tom made a good stop and U's began to be the team in the ascendency again. It fell to a 91st minute strike from Chris Benjamin to get a deserved equaliser & what a strike. There was still time for Dundo to show some brilliant skill and finishing only for the lino's flag to rule out the goal. That looked a tight decision.

Under the circumstances a v good point on a pitch that allowed U's ball players to express themselves. Great debuts from Ali and Eliot (looked very assured) and also thought Harry B showed some great skill. Also great to have Simon D back, he was excellent today.

Good all round team performance that upset the locals, they couldn't even be bothered to add our goal to their poxy scoreboards until well after the final whistle. Some clubs have no class.

[Rambo]

Soz Bornatotter, just have to correct you, Dover did in fact have 2 chances after our equaliser which were both blazed over the bar, so it's not quite right to say that only one side were pressing for a winner.

[bornatotter]

Fair point. Good job there was a cliff behind that goal though to stop the ball.

[Millsy]

Match stat - 19 free kicks, 14 awarded to Dover and 5 awarded to Sutton.

Dover Athletic TV post-match interviews:

[timbo]

Happy with this result, sounds like we played well, which is even more important at the moment

[nigcapgue]

Mar 30, 2013 19:13:32 GMT bornatotter said:

First up. If we had got nothing out of this game it would have been a miscarriage of justice on a such a scale we probably would have had a fair claim to the European court of human rights.
Had to swerve the booze cruise debut due to a potentially lethal combination of a groin strain and marital coercion , although to be fair mrs totter was pulled in for a night shift saving lives so it was into the truck for the 2 4 6 8 motorway cruise down to the white cliffs.
Both the new lads were straight into the team and I thought we looked much better balanced although still short of that elusive and proven striker but that berth is one for filling for next season now I suspect.
A steady start in front of a thousand plus crowd at crabble with honours even in the early sparring. Once again foulksy looked a handful driving down the right. Dover really did look limited by comparison and dundo should have had us in front with a free header piled wide and Harry b narrowly missed out in a race for a ball across the six yard box that was begging to be bundled home. Our lads were working well with Dover pretty much reduced to the odd raid on the break or a bit of old route one, proving for me that this is a decidedly average BSS if they are genuine promotion contenders.
Just before the break Ali hit a corker that smashed back off the bar as once again the luck was against us.
Second half started more of the same although having queued up half hour, yes half a bleedin hour, for a slipper and a cup of splosh I had a decent view from the side of just how easily we were opening Dover up wide right and again a bunch of decent balls in went begging. This mob were there for the taking.
Then we were plunged back into the kind of clouseau style officiating that drives you nuts. If a player can go in for a challenge, make clean contact with the entire ball, not touch the other player and still get a straight red then the world has gone mad. I knew we were in trouble when the busy little tw*t of a Lino got himself involved In my experience the minute one of those busy wannabes sticks his oar in its because he wants to influence the match and it was his call that got Deano sent off.
But even with ten men we were playing all the football but Dover got another big slice of luck, Tom flapped a bit at a couple of balls in and it eventually it dropped for them and it was buried in the net.
This sutton side has got some bollocks though. We kept going forward and on ninety minutes we got the just reward when chris b hit a cracker that the keeper could only palm into the top corner. We went nuts. But still there was more. Only one team was pressing for the winner and after a succession of sutton corners dundo pulled out a superb finish only to be ruled offside by captain bloody stupid and his happy flag.
Anyway, a great battling performance and if we keep up this intensity we are in for a sparkling finish to the season. Driving home ran into a snow storm. Happy Easter.

An excellent report but your comment on the red card is out of order - IT WAS A TWO-"(yes 2) FOOTED TACKLE which will always be punished severely. Although I would say in the nature of the game a yellow would have sufficed I was level with the off-side decision at the end and we were off-side when the ball was played

[Del]

A twofooted tackle is not itself illegal.

[Andy K]

A massive step up in terms of how we performed compared to the Weston game. There was a real passion today, and some cracking football. James Foulkes gets better and better, and although he probably still needs a bit of work on his deliveries into the box he was causing them all sorts of issues down that side. Ali had a real solid debut in a Sutton shirt and was a little unlucky not to score.

When I saw the Sinclair challenge, I have to admit, I thought red straight away. From where I was looking it was clearly two-footed , but then I'm no ref and I was a little shocked when it was a red. As Dundo was receiving the ball for that last min wondershot, the flag went up before he received it. Whether or not that was the right decision I couldn't say, but what a goal it would have been!

We again showed our worth against a team in the top 5 and that makes it more frustrating we are where we are in the league, but thanks to Bromley losing, we're back up to 11th. Both sides in the relegation spots before the start of play not only won, but also scored 4. Billericay trounced Hayes 4-1 and Staines had a great result winning 4-0 at Dorchester. Seems like Maidenhead and Tonbridge are being sucked in again.

Oh finally MoM for me today. Simon Downer. Utterly superb today and showed what a quality centre back he really is.