Dover U14s entertained Bredhurst at a freezing Tilmanstone on Sunday afternoon, a side who we had lost to away earlier in the season. Missing a couple of key players the boys started slowly and Bredhurst had the better of the opening 10 minutes, with an icy cold wind behind them alot of Dover’s passes were running through to the keeper. But soon the new centre midfield partnership of George Cudworth and Alfie Smith-Bainbridge began to dominate the match, their strength and tenacity was too much for Bredhurst and Dover’s defence was rarely tested, stand in keeper Carson Philpott hardly had a shot to warm his hands up. The breakthrough came in the 20th minute, left winger Sam Castle set up top scorer Lewis Saunders for the opener, a calm finish from inside the box, it was no more than Dover deserved. Dover continued to dominate with Max Spurr and Lochlan Murrow’s pace and skill in wide areas causing problems. Dover went in at half time at 1-0 heads high and instructions were to come out quickly and go at them again.
The 2nd half was more of the same, Dover full backs were asked to push forward more and cause problems higher up the pitch. Bredhurst had changed shape in an attempt to create something themselves. The second goal came 10 minutes into the half, a defensive error by Bredhurst led to Saunders getting his second of the match and Dover seemed out of sight already as Bredhurst had created very little and Dover’s defence had coped with everything with ease. Bredhurst were picking up injuries too, one particularly nasty and finished the match with 10 men. Dover’s 3rd came 10 mins from time, Saunders was through on goal on his hat-trick but unselfishly set up Max Spurr for a simple finish.
Bredhurst tested Philpott’s handling late on with a few long range efforts but he was up to it and 3-0 was a fair result. Hollands and Blair at home next week, weather permitting, and we are hoping for a similar result and performance.
