Bromley 0-1 Dover Athletic - It was backs to the wall but we were magnificent, says Nicky Forster

BROMLEY  0-1  DOVER ATHLETIC
Blue Square Bet South
Tuesday 25^th October 2011
Stephen McCartney reports from Hayes Lane

DOVER ATHLETIC manager Nicky Forster hailed his battling players “magnificent” after they sealed a crucial three points despite playing all but eight minutes of the second half with ten-men.

They extended their unbeaten run to eight games as in-form striker Donovan Simmonds’ opportunist finish just 226 seconds into the game sent the club into seventh place in the Blue Square Bet South table, ending Bromley’s five-match unbeaten run in the process, ahead of both club’s massive FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round ties at the weekend.

Dover were reduced to ten-men after Islington based referee Mr Ashvin Degnarain brandished a straight-red card to skipper Shane Huke for an alleged elbow on Bromley right-sided midfielder Michael Jones in the 53^rd minute.

But Forster was delighted with the battling qualities from his side as tonight’s win puts them only four points behind fifth-placed side Basingstoke Town.

“I thought they were absolutely magnificent, the boys’ tonight, I can’t overstress that enough,” said the 38-year-old, who left his home-town club Lingfield to take over the manager’s hot-seat at Crabble six games ago.

“Their application, their commitment, especially in the second half when we went down to ten men was really first class.

“Bromley are a big strong team and we had to stand up and be counted.  It was men against men out there tonight.  In stature they were bigger than us and I think strength wise at times they were bigger than us and we stood up to that. 

“There were some really big performances out there, all of them.  I’m not going to single anyone out because they were all magnificent.”

Bromley boss Mark Goldberg admitted it was a bad night for his side and with Tonbridge Angels winning at Eastbourne Borough, his side have slipped down one place to fourteenth place in the table with 18 points from 14 games – eight points clear of the drop zone.

“It was a bad night for us,” admitted Goldberg.

“We’ve got a young squad who, I keep saying it, are learning as we go and unfortunately it’s another lesson learned. 

“Having lost valuable points and again we’re probably looking behind us rather than in front of us.”

Conceding early goals has caused Goldberg a headache in recent weeks and despite his side battling back from such a set-back at Maidenhead United at the weekend, to grab a 3-3 draw, there was no way back for Bromley at Hayes Lane tonight.

Barry Cogan stroked a free-kick into the Bromley penalty area and Simmonds had time and space to take a touch, spin, get the ball from out of his feet and drive a right-footed shot into the bottom right-hand corner from 12-yards.

Forster said: “I thought the first 20 minutes we started the game really brightly and we got a good goal.

“It was a fantastic opportunist goal from Simmo.  He’s on a good run of form at the moment. 

“I thought we were controlling the tempo of the game, we was moving the ball well at times.  I thought if we scored the second we’d go on and win comfortably but half-time came and I thought the whole of the first half we controlled the game but there was a good save to be fair from Ruiz but we limited them to very  little.”

Thankfully for those travelling fans that utilised the supporters’ coach, which left Crabble half-an-hour later than planned at six o’clock and endured traffic delays en-route to Bromley, were in place by the time that Simmonds scored his sixth goal of the season.

Goldberg added: “It was a very poor (goal).  It was too much time what we gave him in the box to get the ball under control, take it out of his feet and bury it, so I’m very disappointed with the way that we conceded that first goal.

“We’ve talked about it to a certain extent, what went wrong, a similar situation at Maidenhead on Saturday and we talked about it before the game and then within four minutes we’ve conceded so yes I’m disappointed but most important of all I’m disappointed with our lack of intelligence and the fact although Dover are a good side, a well organised side, we have to give them credit.”

Bromley’s first chance arrived in the 15^th minute when left-back Nathan Green sent a dipping free-kick a yard over the bar with his left-foot from 30-yards.

Dover lost Simmonds through injury, twisting his ankle after showing endeavour to chase down and block a  clearance from the Bromley goalkeeper Tommy Forecast, who was relieved to see the ball divert out for a throw-in rather than an embarrassing goal.

“It was unfortunate, he was working so hard for the cause wasn’t he,” said Forster, revealing he will not know the extent of the injury for the next couple of days.

“He’s chasing the ball down, it’s one of those when you put your leg out to block the ball and he took the full force of the ball and it just turned the ankle.  There’s no stability there because your foot’s not planted on the ground.  He’s a little bit sore, we’ll asses him in the morning and see where we are on Saturday.”

Praising Simmonds and Walker, Forster said: “He’s on good form to be fair, the pair of them are.  They’ve scored a lot of goals and that’s what we’ve been asking for from our strikers and they’ve responded very, very well and they’ve made their shirt their own at this stage.”

Dover’s ball retention was excellent, on a pitch that benefited from a downpour before and during the first half, but Bromley created the better goalscoring chances during the first half.

Bromley forced their first corner halfway through the half, which was swung in from the left by Harry Harding and Dover cleared the ball to Danny Waldren, whose low right-footed drive from 30-yards was parried by visiting keeper Mikhael Jaimez-Ruiz, low to his left, who reacted swiftly to smother Hakeem Araba’s close-range follow up.

Another effort from Waldren, following Jones’ floated free-kick from the right, was hacked off the Dover line in what was a good spell from the home side.

Waldren then played the ball up field and Hakeem Araba’s hook put his strike partner Leon McKenzie through on goal, but his 43^rd minute rasping drive screamed over the top of the near post.

Dover almost doubled their lead inside injury time when Cogan whipped in a corner from the right and an unmarked Ollie Schulz saw his powerful header tipped over the bar by Forecast.

Cogan almost replicated his quality strike here last season when he cut in from the right, but on this occasion his right-footed screamer curled past the far post.

Dover substitute, George Purcell, who had a goal chalked off for offside in the 36^th minute after being released by James Walker, unleashed a left-footed drive from 30-yards which forced Forecast to parry the ball as he dived to his right.

But controversy arrived on the hour-mark when Dover right-back Huke was red-carded for an alleged elbow on Jones and Dover Athletic will use Bromley’s video footage of the match to appeal the decision at the Football Association.

“I couldn’t really see it,” admitted Forster, as the incident was nearer the stand side of the ground than the dug-outs.

“Shane Huke said there wasn’t a lot of contact.  The ref made the decision very, very quickly.  I couldn’t see it!

“It changed the emphasis of the game. It was backs to the wall but we stood up and we were magnificent.

“I think a couple of things did go against us.  I think there was an odd decision that did go against us. You could moan about that all you like but it was the way we responded to those knocks.  I thought we were magnificent!”

Goldberg said: “I think that was a straight red.  It’s just one of those things.  If you elbow somebody in the face that’s what happens so I don’t think they’ll have any problems with that decision!

“But that didn’t help us!” he admitted.  “They got stronger and we got weaker.  They got players’ behind the ball.”

The sending-off forced Forster into bringing on substitute Phil Starkey into his natural position at right-back and Walker played as a lone-striker for the rest of the match as Dover Athletic were immense all over the park to shut the game out.

Goldberg made three substitutions all within four minutes, bringing on three attack minded players, Warren McBean, Gareth Williams (who played behind the front two) and Aaron Rhule.

But McBean squandered Bromley’s best chance to equalise in the 61^st minute.

Green was given time and space to float in a cross from the left and McBean should have done better with a glancing header which lacked power from 12-yards, which brought a comfortable save from Jaimez-Ruiz, who then made a routine collection as Williams’ low right-footed drive from 25-yards rolled into his gloves.

Bromley, who despite bringing right-winger Lewis Taylor in from Tonbridge Angels last week, lacked any creativity from either flank, which has been a story of their season.

Bromley didn’t create another clear-cut chance for the remainder of the game.

McBean did meet Williams’ left-wing in-swinging corner with a near post header, which sailed harmlessly wide of the far post and Joe Dolan came up from his defensive duties to send a bullet header towards goal from the edge of the box, which the Dover keeper caught high above his head underneath the crossbar.

Dover Athletic, meanwhile, created a late chance as they almost hit Bromley on the break when Walker was released down the left and he cut the ball back to Purcell, who drove a left-footed shot across Forecast but also past the foot of the far post from an acute angle.

Forster is now making his mark on this Dover Athletic team.

“I learn about them all the time,” he said.  “I’ve seen us come up against two big powerful teams, Welling and these guys and stayed toe-to-toe with them and do very well in that respect so I knew we had that in us and we proved that again.

And tonight’s battling victory could prove vital come the end of the season.

Forster added: “It’s a big three points for lots of reasons. We have in house targets and that pretty much means we’ve achieved one of those.  We are pushing hard to get up with the pack of five at the top of the league and we have closed the gap there and distanced ourselves from the couple below us.  It keeps the momentum going for many reasons.”

Goldberg, meanwhile, was critical of his team, saying they lacked intelligence to unlock a solid Dover back line.

He said: “I think we lacked a little bit of invention today.  The movement of our front two was just not good enough.  We ran in straight lines, we never stretched their defence and because of that we weren’t able to play our normal flowing passing football.

“We played too direct especially when they had a player sent-off.  We panicked and we started resorting to long balls.

“It’s fair to say that Dover were more intelligent when they went a man down.  They, if anything, strengthened their resolve, were better organised and we weren’t clever enough to pass our way into goalscoring opportunities.”

Goldberg made five changes from the side that snatched a 3-3 draw at Maidenhead United at the weekend and when asked whether he had Saturday’s winner-takes-all FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round showdown at Dartford in the back of his mind, he said: “Unfortunately we’ve got a few niggles from Saturday and I suppose to a certain extent if we didn’t have the (FA Cup) game on Saturday then maybe one or two might have been playing.

“A bad, bad decision by me.  You should really just take every game as it comes but with the pressure that we have commercially, the FA Cup means everything.  Maybe to a certain extent I had one eye on the FA Cup, maybe.

“I’m not making excuses.  We weren’t good enough tonight.  They were the better team.”

Bromley: Tommy Forecast, Danny Waldren, Nathan Green, Liam Harwood, Joe Dolan, Tutu Henriques, Lewis Taylor, Harry Harding (Gareth Williams 55), Hakeem Araba, Leon McKenzie (Warren McBean 55), Michael Jones (Aaron Rhule 59).
Subs: Marlon Patterson, Rory Hill

Booked: Hakeem Araba 28

Dover Athletic: Mikhael Jaimez-Ruiz, Shane Huke, Tom Wynter, Agustin Battipiedi, Ollie Schulz, Ed Harris, Barry Cogan, Glen Southam (Harry Baker 77), James Walker, Donovan Simmonds (George Purcell 21), Leon Redwood (Phil Starkey 53).
Subs: Michael Corcoran, Ross Kitteridge

Goals: Donovan Simmonds 4

Booked: Augustin Battipiedi 44

Sent Off: Shane Huke 53

Attendance: 554
Referee: Mr Ashvin Degnarain (Islington, London N5)
Assistants: Mr Graeme Ions (Westerham) & Mr Jason Richardson (Pinner, Middlesex)