Dover.v.Torquay Tue 2nd
Posted: 01 Dec 2014, 11:02
Dover Athletic were formed in 1983 after the towns previous club had gone into liquidation, the club failed to gain promotion to the football conference in 1990 after winning the Southern Premier division, due to their ground not meeting the standards for the conference at that time. Dover would gain promotion to the newly formed conference South in 2010 after first winning the Isthmian div 1 South in 2008 and the Isthmian premier league the following season.
Dover twice beaten in the conference South play-offs, by Woking and Salisbury, finally gained promotion back to the conference premier division beating Ebbsfleet 1.0 in the 2013-14 conference South play-off final. After a very difficult early start this season 'The Whites' manager Chris Kinnear moved to strengthen his squad by making the triple signing of Andy Rafferty, Rob Gerrard and Matt Saunders, also has picked up the loan signings of Tom Bonner from Cambridge and James Poole from Bury, these signings have now given Dover new belief, they are currently the form horse in the entire league, sat top of the current form table with four wins and two draws from their last six games, and have a very good current home record, unbeaten at home in their last six games, five of those games won by the whites.
Last time out saw Dover pick up a very impressive 1.2 away win at Gateshead.
30 Rafferty
29 Essam
26 Bonner
06 Orlu Booked
15 Francis
16 Sterling
04 Kinnear
28 Taiwo Booked
17 Deverdics (Poole - 66' )
10 Murphy
14 Payne (Davies - 74' )
Info for those going to the game
From outside of Kent, find your way to the M25, then take the M2/A2 (following the signs to Canterbury, then from Canterbury follow signs to Dover) as far as the Whitfield roundabout (there is a McDonald's Drive-Thru on the left).
Take the fourth exit at this roundabout, down Whitfield Hill. At the bottom of the hill turn left at the roundabout and follow this road until the first set of traffic lights. At the lights turn right (180 degrees down the hill) and follow the road under the railway bridge, the ground is a little further up the road on the left.
There is no parking for supporters within the ground, although parking is available in the rugby ground, which is just inside the main entrance - stewards will direct you.
If you have to take the M20/A20 leave the A20 in Folkestone (the exit immediately after the tunnel through the hill) and travel through the Alkham Valley (turn left at the roundabout at the end of the slip-road and then left again, following the signs for Alkham) which will eventually take you near Kearsney train station (turn right into Lower Road just before the railway bridge, before you get to the station).
From a Torquay point of view, we are getting to the all important Christmas games and a return to form and consistency over this period is vital if we want to have a push at getting back into the League at the first attempt , didn't go to Saturdays game, but by all accounts it was a promising performance, and the biggest positive for me wasn't just a win against a very strong Eastleigh side but our first clean sheet since Septembers win against Dover, maybe a settled defence will help us gain more clean sheets going forward. Last time out we lined up like this, would you change it and why ?
Rice
Berry
Downes
Pearce
Ives
Chapell
Young
Richards
Ajala
Bowman
Briscoe
Make no mistake about it, with Dover's current form this game is going to be as tough as they come, also not sure on any commentary for this game as the signal for Torbay and South Devon appears to have been turned off for three weeks in a cost cutting exercise by Radio Devon, maybe Teeboo can help us on this one.
Dover twice beaten in the conference South play-offs, by Woking and Salisbury, finally gained promotion back to the conference premier division beating Ebbsfleet 1.0 in the 2013-14 conference South play-off final. After a very difficult early start this season 'The Whites' manager Chris Kinnear moved to strengthen his squad by making the triple signing of Andy Rafferty, Rob Gerrard and Matt Saunders, also has picked up the loan signings of Tom Bonner from Cambridge and James Poole from Bury, these signings have now given Dover new belief, they are currently the form horse in the entire league, sat top of the current form table with four wins and two draws from their last six games, and have a very good current home record, unbeaten at home in their last six games, five of those games won by the whites.
Last time out saw Dover pick up a very impressive 1.2 away win at Gateshead.
30 Rafferty
29 Essam
26 Bonner
06 Orlu Booked
15 Francis
16 Sterling
04 Kinnear
28 Taiwo Booked
17 Deverdics (Poole - 66' )
10 Murphy
14 Payne (Davies - 74' )
Info for those going to the game
From outside of Kent, find your way to the M25, then take the M2/A2 (following the signs to Canterbury, then from Canterbury follow signs to Dover) as far as the Whitfield roundabout (there is a McDonald's Drive-Thru on the left).
Take the fourth exit at this roundabout, down Whitfield Hill. At the bottom of the hill turn left at the roundabout and follow this road until the first set of traffic lights. At the lights turn right (180 degrees down the hill) and follow the road under the railway bridge, the ground is a little further up the road on the left.
There is no parking for supporters within the ground, although parking is available in the rugby ground, which is just inside the main entrance - stewards will direct you.
If you have to take the M20/A20 leave the A20 in Folkestone (the exit immediately after the tunnel through the hill) and travel through the Alkham Valley (turn left at the roundabout at the end of the slip-road and then left again, following the signs for Alkham) which will eventually take you near Kearsney train station (turn right into Lower Road just before the railway bridge, before you get to the station).
From a Torquay point of view, we are getting to the all important Christmas games and a return to form and consistency over this period is vital if we want to have a push at getting back into the League at the first attempt , didn't go to Saturdays game, but by all accounts it was a promising performance, and the biggest positive for me wasn't just a win against a very strong Eastleigh side but our first clean sheet since Septembers win against Dover, maybe a settled defence will help us gain more clean sheets going forward. Last time out we lined up like this, would you change it and why ?
Rice
Berry
Downes
Pearce
Ives
Chapell
Young
Richards
Ajala
Bowman
Briscoe
Make no mistake about it, with Dover's current form this game is going to be as tough as they come, also not sure on any commentary for this game as the signal for Torbay and South Devon appears to have been turned off for three weeks in a cost cutting exercise by Radio Devon, maybe Teeboo can help us on this one.
