U16s 4-3 Deal Town
Dover started the day knowing that not losing would guarantee they be crowned champions. The Place was full of support for the young Whites.
The Weather conditions were terrible from start to finish and didn’t make the game fun viewing. The game started in the worse possible fashion with a shot by the deal striker going straight through the hands of the Dover Keeper to make the start difficult, but it’s something we have done all season, make things hard for ourselves. What that did do was get Dover to up their game. Dover started to click into gear and went forward with purpose, there was some neat work in and around the box by Liam McVie, George Nikaj and Bruno Da Silva, for Liam McVie to finish a snap shot in off the crossbar to equalise.
After the equaliser, again Dover were in control but couldn’t take their chances and resulted in a silly foul given about 30 yards out on the counter, this was whipped into the box, with aid of the wind looped up and beat our keeper for a simple header for the deal striker to make it 2-1 to deal. Deal were up for this fight and out to cause an upset. The goal again sparked Dover back into life and not long after, went up the other end, with again nice work into the box it fell to George Nikaj, who twisted and turned into a goal scoring situation and again Dover clawed back to make it 2-2. Dover kept pressing for the winner after getting that equaliser, and the final press came just before half time when, Liam McVie had a great effort foiled by what at first the referee thought was a great save on the line by the retreating defender, but the linesman flagged and handball was given along with a red card and a penalty to Dover. Skipper Owen Armstrong stepped up to take the penalty and slotted it bottom left with the keeper getting a small hand to it, but the referee made him retake for encroachment, so with coaches and fans looking nervous, Owen Armstrong had other ideas and put it completely out of reach of the diving keeper. Making it Dover 3- deal 2. The player’s emotions after that goal on and off the pitch was a sight to see. The half time whistle blew not long after this.
Second half after a great half time team talk by coaches and players, and switching to our more familiar formation, the pressure seemed to ease at least for the short term. That was until the 2nd half after being a bit wasteful in front of goal, Deal played some wonderful football out wide, and a great cross back post for their striker to header in to make it 3-3. Dover had, had little to defend up until this and were shell shocked. But again the Dover players knew what a massive game this was and showed it by their battling determination, they missed another few good chances, before a ball over the top and some nice play by the front 3 again, it fell to Mr prolific George Nikaj to slot home for the eventual winner for Dover and the goal that would crown the young whites Champions of the 2018/19 season.
The elation on all the boys faces at the final whistle showed just how much that meant to them, a well-deserved win, and now we focus on staying unbeaten for the rest of the season with 3 games remaining and a massive congratulations to the player’s hard work and determination this season.
I would like to thank all the parents and coaching team for all their hard work throughout the season, but most importantly this group of players of after 5 years of searching for a league win they finally got it. And deserved it
Team of the season
Luke Lockhart, Bailey Wadhams, Arthur Clarke, Ethan O’Donnell, Terry Mills (TJ), Sid Gurung, Owen Armstrong, Jack Finn, Taylor Sinnock, Liam McVie, George Nikaj, Kosh Rai, Raz Rai, Jack Coulson, Bruno Da Silva, Gerald Kwaku, Toby Swinn.
