Category: Match Reaction

STATEMENT FOLLOWING BARROW POSTPONEMENT

The Club are sad to report that today’s game at Barrow has been postponed following the tragic death of an individual on the West Coast Main Line. The Dover team, staff and officials were caught up on board the 9.30 am train from London.

The club would like to extend it’s deepest sympathies to the friends and family of the person who died today. While the club and it’s supporters have been caught up in the disruption caused by this terrible event, our inconvenience pales into insignificance when compared to this heart-breaking loss of life.

We understand the inconvenience and frustration caused by match postponements. When arranging away travel we are very carefully to select our route and mode to ensure the minimum possibility of disruption, which would prevent us getting to games.

In the past 20 years travelling by road, air and rail, this is the first time that we have had a postponement due to a disruption on the railways. While it is disappointing, the railways have provided a much more reliable journey than both the roads and air.

Whilst recognising the gravity and sadness of today’s events and the frustration that calling off games can cause; we cannot let the behavior by representatives of Barrow AFC and their supporters go unchallenged.

Postponements are never great and there are financial implications for everyone involved, not least this club and its fantastic travelling support.

However, we are shocked and disappointed with the response from Barrow AFC and some of their supporters.

Given the nature of today’s delay, we are disgusted to receive messages wishing death to our players and staff from Barrow supporters on Twitter.

We were further shocked to hear about abuse directed by Barrow officials towards both our Kit Manager and our Supporters Club driver – the latter had travelled to Barrow this morning and was subjected to foul and abusive language as a Barrow Club official attempted to board the supporters coach.

We would like to again send our deepest sympathies to those effected by today’s tragic loss and also thank our travelling fans who, despite the inconvenience caused, we are sure will understand that whilst the postponement is unfortunate, it was something we had no control over.

VIDEO: PLAYER REACTION

Scott Doe shared his thoughts following Dover’s 4-0 defeat at Aldershot Town on Tuesday night.

VIDEO: PLAYER REACTION

Captain Kevin Lokko spoke to the camera following Tuesday evening’s 4-0 defeat at Aldershot Town.

VIDEO: MANAGER REACTION

Andy Hessenthaler shared his thoughts on Dover’s 4-0 loss at Aldershot Town on Tuesday night.

GOALS NOT ENOUGH FOR TAYLOR

Bobby-Joe Taylor may have opened his account for Dover on Saturday, but was left deflated at the final whistle.

Left-back Taylor started the scoring against Notts County by curling a stunning 25-yard free-kick into the top corner, however Notts County equalised in the dying moments via the head of substitute Kristian Dennis to make the result 2-2 at Crabble.

Mitch Rose’s penalty had cancelled out Taylor’s superb set-piece and it seemed Kevin Lokko’s 57th minute finish was enough to end a five-match winless home run for Dover, only for Dennis to strike in injury-time.

Taylor said after the draw, “It’s pretty gut-wrenching as we defended so well in the second half, but they are a good side who keep the ball well, so we are disappointed to concede so late on having kept them out for so long.

“It’s frustrating because we are still searching for that win at home and we had a lot of chances to put the game to bed.

“Personally I’m over the moon to get off the mark as you probably don’t see as many goals coming from left back, however I’ve been working on set pieces everyday, so I was buzzing to see the ball fly in.

“I’m just gutted we could not get all three points”.

Whites are still looking for their first home win since a 2-1 win against Wrexham on 10th August, but Taylor feels a win at Crabble isn’t too far away.

“If you look at those matches, we’ve been in the game for most of them. It simply comes down to both boxes, keeping them out and taking our chances, which will come and I’m sure our form at Crabble will turn around sooner rather than later.

“Our form on the road has been really good, so we have got to take what we have been doing away into our home games and if we keep working hard on the training ground then I am sure it will change for the better and I hope that is the case in our next fixture at Crabble.”

Whites travel to Aldershot on Tuesday night as they look to make it eight wins out of nine on their travels this campaign.

Referring to the game at the Ebb Stadium, Taylor said, “today is a good point if we win, but it will be tough at their place.

“In this division anyone can beat anyone on their day so we have just got to make sure we are right and as long as we take our chances, we will not have any problems.”

Story by Ryan Clark.

VIDEO: PLAYER REACTION

Saturday’s goalscorer Kevin Lokko gives his reaction following our 2-2 home draw with Notts County on Saturday.

VIDEO: MANAGER REACTION

Andy Hessenthaler gives his opinion on his side’s 2-2 home draw against Notts County on Saturday.

YOUNG WHITES ADVANCE IN CUP

Dover Athletic’s academy moved into the FA Youth Cup Third Qualifying round on Wednesday evening, beating Tonbridge Angels 4-2 on penalties at Crabble.

Harrison Pont (Pictured) netted deep into injury-time to make it 2-2 and take the tie into extra time after Athletic’s youngsters had twice fallen behind in the game through strikes from Tonbridge’s Harry Hudson and Ned Lewis.

However, Mike Sandmann took few positives from the shootout victory.

The academy boss said after the game, “I thought that we were really poor last night and I was really disappointed with the performance. I think the occasion got the better of too many of my players.

“It was hard for me to be positive after that, even though the lads got themselves back into the game, because I was so disappointed.”

However, despite his displeasure at what he witnessed from his side, Sandmann believes his young charges will be better in the next round.

“It’s certainly a learning curve for the next round. Sometimes the first game is always the toughest and I want us to bounce back with a positive performance.”

Sandmann knew his team were moving into the next round when Pont levelled in injury-time.

“Football has a strange way of coming around and giving teams luck. We literally equalised with the last kick of the game and at that point I knew we would go on and win the game.” he said.

“We didn’t look like scoring and were not causing them many problems, but when we scored a goal like that in the last minute I could not help but feel that tonight was going to be our night.”

Sandmann also praised 16-year-old Will Moses for setting up the second goal before he came off injured. “Moses was excellent all night for someone so young. He put in a fantastic performance and it is a shame he had to come off towards the end with a head injury”.

The draw for the FA Youth Cup Third Qualifying Round takes place on Monday 7th October.

Story by Ryan Clark