Dover Athletic 0-3 Woking - Don't write us off yet, says Dover Athletic boss Nicky Forster

DOVER ATHLETIC  0-3  WOKING
Blue Square Bet South
Saturday 19^th November 2011
Paul Parkinson reports from Crabble

WOKING showed their title credentials with a comprehensive 3-0 win over Dover at Crabble today, in a performance that displayed all of the pace, guile and skill that marks them down as title favourites for the Conference South.  

An early goal from Dale Binns was doubled by Jack King’s controversial penalty on the stroke of half time, before substitute Elvis Hammond completed the scoring with a third in stoppage time at the end of the game.

Their dominance was such that the hosts only came close to testing Aaron Howe in the Cards’ goal once; through Barry Cogan’s curling, dipping effort in the second half, that saw the keeper flying across his goal to turn the ball magnificently away from the top left corner.

Although naturally disappointed by both the result and performance, Dover manager Nicky Forster was full of praise for the visitors, saying, “Today, we were beaten by a better team.  They are the best team in the league, and rightly so.  We’ve got to aspire to that.  I think they were worthy winners today, and we’ve got to pick ourselves up and move on again.  

“They are a strong team.  Pace always hurts defences and that’s one thing manager’s look for when they sign players, especially at the top, and they had a lot of that today.  They were strong, they were quick, and it was evident.”

“Over the last 10 games, and I said this before the game, we’ve been in terrific form.  So I’m not saying that in just one game that we’re not good enough, but we’re certainly disappointed with the way we were beaten.  

“Let’s put this in perspective, it is just one defeat.  Yes, we were disappointed with the way we lost last week, but we’ll dust ourselves down and keep on going.

“I expect us to keep pushing and get into the playoffs, at least.  I think we’re good enough, so I’m not going to write anything off yet.””

Dover created the first chance of the game in the 8th minute, when James Walker and Barry Cogan exchanged passes on the edge of the Woking area, but when Cogan delivered a cross into the box, Walker’s half-volleyed effort was skied high over the goal, when maybe he had more time to control his shot.

This was to prove crucial as Woking opened the scoring one minute later with their first attack of the game.  

Binns played a one-two with Jay Davies on the edge of the Dover area, cut the ball back past Phil Starkey, then drove his shot under the sprawling Mikhael Jaimez-Ruiz.

Dover’s only other half-chance in the first period came in the 14th minute when Harry Baker looked to capitalise on a poor Alan Inns header, but although well hit, his 25 yard drive was always rising and didn’t trouble the keeper.

From then on, the difference in class between the two sides was obvious, as Dover’s one-out attacks were handled with ease by Inns and former Ebbsfleet favourite Mark Ricketts, whereas Woking always seemed to have a threat through the combined efforts of Binns, Moses Ademola, Wayne Gray and Paris Cowan-Hall.

On 25 minutes, Inns saw a towering header fly over Jaimez-Ruiz’s bar, then good play by Binns and Davies set up Ademola, who fired into the side netting after giving Tom Wynter a torrid time.

After the half hour, Jaimez-Ruiz did well to parry away Gray’s drive after the forward had picked up a poor Augustin Battipiedi header, then held off Starkey in a foot-race to get into the Dover area.

Starkey received the first caution of the game two minutes later, in the first of a number of strange decisions by Mr Crouch in the first half.  

Following what appeared to be a studs-up lunge by Jay Davies on Ed Harris, which went unpunished, Starkey appeared to cleanly win a sliding challenge with Binns’, the first of a number of flashpoints between the two players, only for Mr Crouch to caution the full-back.

After Jaimez-Ruiz made a splendid save to deny Binns’ looping effort from an Ademola cross, Mr Crouch caused confusion over his decision following Ollie Schulz’s clumsy challenge to stop Cowan-Hall’s weaving run.  Having initially appeared to point for a penalty, the official ran to the left edge of the area, where the challenge took place, and pointed at an area outside the box.  

After protestations by the Woking players surrounding him, Mr Crouch then pointed to the spot once more, from which King sent the keeper the wrong way to double the visitor’s advantage.  

In fairness, when asked about the confusion, Forster said after the game that he had no problem with the decision.

After their dominance of the first half, Woking were content to sit back in the second, looking to counter-attack as Dover searched for a way back into the game.  

But it wasn’t until the 71st minute that the hosts were able to fashion a chance though, with Donovan Simmonds slipping a ball through to Walker in the area.  Walker did well to stay on his feet following a challenge from Ricketts, but couldn’t steer his shot back onto the target, to a chorus of penalty appeals from the crowd.

Four minutes later, Cogan produced Dover’s best effort of the game.  The former Millwall and Gillingham midfielder picked up the ball on the left wing, broke through two tackles to reach the edge of the box, before unleashing a curling, dipping right foot shot from which Howe produced a magnificent save to keep the 2-goal difference.

Woking had a chance to seal the game after 83 minutes, when replacement Ola Sogbanmu flashed a header past the right hand post from Binns’ left wing cross, before fellow substitute Hammond applied the coup-de-gras in stoppage time.

From a Dover long throw, George Purcell couldn’t stretch to reach Walker’s near post flick, and the resulting clearance found Hammond in a race with Ed Harris.  Harris tried to turn the ball back towards Jaimez-Ruiz, but Hammond hadn’t given up the chase and forced a miskick from the keeper.  Keeping his composure, Hammond turned back towards the corner of the area and looped a shot over the retreating Harris into the top left corner.

The final whistle saw another scuffle between Starkey and Binns that saw the Woking man receive the fourth caution of a game that was too one-sided to be considered a classic, except by those from Kingfield.

Dover Athletic:  Mikhael Jaimez-Ruiz, Phil Starkey, Tom Wynter, Augustin Battpiedi, Ollie Schulz, Ed Harris, Barry Cogan, Glen Southam (Luke I’Anson 71), James Walker, Donovan Simmonds (George Purcell 82), Harry Baker (Leon Redwood 58).
Subs:  Sam Cutler, Lee Hook

Booked: Phil Starkey 32.

Woking: Aaron Howe, Adam Newton, Jay Davies, Mark Ricketts, Alan Inns, Adam Doyle, Paris Cowan-Hall (Ola Sogbanmu 74), Jack King, Moses Ademola, Wayne Gray (Elvis Hammond 60), Dale Binns.
Subs: Giuseppe Sole, Derek Duncan, Andrew Little

Goals: Dale Binns 9, Jack King 45 (pen), Elvis Hammond 90

Booked: Paris Cowan-Hall 64, Adam Doyle 80, Dale Binns 90

Attendance: 1,061
Referee: Mr Ian Crouch (Orpington)
Assistants: Mr Adrian Oldershaw (Brentwood, Essex) and Mr Andrew Parker (Stanford-Le-Hope, Essex)