Dover U16s 2 Langton Green 0
Dover deservedly won the Kent League title overcoming Langton Green in a final game title decider.
Even though Dover knew a draw would be sufficient to win the league, Dover approached the game with a positive attitude to take the game to their opponents. With the best two teams in the league clashing this was always going to be tough and competitive game, and both teams set about from the outset trying to dictate with their passing games. Hector Duppre was finding space and looked the most likely to create an opening in the early exchanges as Dover took the initiative. Langton responded by starting closing down the Dover team and towards the end of the half enjoyed their best spell of the match, as central defenders Hayden Wood and man of the match Oliver Griffiths cut out a number of intended through balls to their very sharp attack. The closest effort of the half was a spectacular Ed Muddiman strike as he received a ball facing away from goal 25 yards out, controlled the ball in an instant, swivelled, and then unleashed a shot that went just over the bar.
At the start of the second half Dover started to dominate, and in particular Henry Mileham gave the Langton right back a torrid time, twice beating him in a space of minutes and putting in telling crosses which Dover failed to get on the end of. Despite losing some of this momentum as Langton tried to get a foothold back in the game, midway through the half Dover took the lead, albeit a touch fortuitously, as sub Oliver Nye did well to just beat the Langton defence to a bouncing ball, and as a result his shot looped of the defender’s foot and over the goalkeeper into the net. There was nothing fortunate as another sub Ryan’s Aldritt’s run was found by an exquisite chip over the defence from Dylan Tubb, as he calmly finished ending Langton’s resistance. Dover saw out the remainder of the game fairly untroubled, and as a result took the title as unquestionably the best side, and probably more tellingly the strongest squad in the league, of which the management team led by Dean Jones, and all the players can be very proud of their achievements.
Dover: Tyler King, Dylan Hammond, Oliver Griffiths, Hayden Wood, Finlay Jarman-Hume, Henry Mileham, Jack Hansen, Dylan Tubb, Finlay O’Shea, Hector Duppre, Ed Muddiman. Subs: Charlie Dale, Oliver Nye, Ryan Aldritt, Joe Muddiman, Will Giles
