Today saw high flying Athletic away to local rivals Deal Town. The first half saw a very indifferent Dover side come up against a very motivated and determined Deal.

Athletic already having won the previous meeting between the two earlier in the season, were expecting to come away once again with 3 x points. However, Deal to their credit came out fighting from the first whistle looking to put their opposition under immediate pressure. Deal controlled much of the first half going in 2-0 up at the break.

Second half saw a significant improvement in the Athletic performance, Dover immediately pulled one back through Ben Cassingena who worked his way in to the Deal penalty area outwitted two defenders and fired an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net.

Dover maintained a high tempo pressure game which resulted in a penalty minutes later, Athletic top scorer Max Brunetti-Leach stepped up to take the spot kick, however, fire over the bar.

Deal managed to claw their way back into the second half, and at killed he game off with a third goal on 65 minutes, and added a 4th in the last ten minutes to leave the final result a 4-1 win for Deal.

Managers Comments
We were not on our game today, and credit must be given to Deal for coming out fighting from the start, they put in probably one of their best performances of the season, however not taking anything away from them we simply looked asleep the entire first half which is disappointing, we improved second half and showed how deadly we can be creating a chance to draw the match even again within 10 minutes of the re-start.

We were taught a lesion today, that being we cant afford to turn up to any game thinking we have already won it.

We go again next week at home to Chatham where we will need to make sure we are ready and fighting for the 3 points.

Everyone’s entitled to an off day and this was ours.