Report

A game that produces a goal every 6.9 minutes has to be enjoyable and exciting and this was certainly a fun game to play in. The Doves lined up in familiar 4-5-1 formation with Kev in goal, Ade & Smiffy full backs, James & Tom in the centre, Paul & Phil wide midfield with Martin, Scott & Duece in central midfield, this left Mike up front and a very strong bench.

Pre match team talk was all about starting the game better and getting out of the blocks quickly, the Doves responded, quickly taking charge of the midfield battle, dominating possession and creating half chances from the off. The first goal arrived after about 10 mins of Doves pressure, a long pass from Ade was misjudged by the full back and the ball bounced up & hit the centre back plumb on the arm, penalty, Neil S obliged and Duece calmly despatched the spot kick to the keepers right. At this point the Doves were rampant with Duece, Mike, Scott and the wingers prominent in attack, the second goal arrived when a corner was cleared, Paul the corner taker helped the ball back into the mix first time for Duece to attack against in the air the keeper, Duece won !! - 2-0.
The third goal arrived shortly after when a superb Doves move featuring 4 slick passes from Martin, Duece and Mike resulted in Paul striding through one on one with the keeper, he slotted it low past the keepers left hand.

3-0 up after 15 minutes and a tactical change from Selston, the left midfielder who was having no joy down the wing moved inside, this promted a recovery with him being instrumental in 2 Selston goals that arrived in the next 5 minutes. 3-2, the Doves quickly responded, Mike who was causing havok pulled oput wide and crossed for Scott to scissor volley home from 16 yards, a classic goal and early contender for goal of the season. Selston did not lie down and the John Carew look alike up front bagged a couple of powerful goals (one via a header from Phil), he was proving a difficult player to mark due to his size, strength & pace. The Doves scored again as Scott fed Mike a through ball down the left channel for Mike to loft the ballover the keeper into the roof of the net to make it 5-4 at half time.

The Doves devised a plan to counter the John carew lookalike with Ade sweeping behind the centre backs and Paul covering the winger down the right, this reduced Carew's effectiveness and he was often forced to lay the ball off with two men on him.

James, Mike & Phil made way for Ryan, Sharpy and Simon. I won't even attempt to remember the sequence of scoring, but Duece scored a brilliant goal collecting a Sharpy clearance (or was it a long pass??) and in one touch bringing it under control and taking it around the advancing keeper, with defenders getting back duece finished in style from the edge of the box, this gave the Doves a cushion again but back came Selston when Sharpy laying on the floor - why? Handled, the penalty was finished well. This was not an end to the scoring as Ryan made up for lost time collecting the ball 30 yards out, advancing to the edge of the box and arrowing a finish right into the bottom corner to keep up his goal a game record.
There was time for Duece to score number 8 and his 4th goal of the game when a cross from the right (was it me or Simon or Ryan I can't remember) was swung in Duece got a great header in to beat the keeper again.

Other notable moments, Scott dribbling round half of the Selston team getting one on one wth the keeper and then blasting it at the keepers body from 6 yards.. Sorry Scott but it had to be mentioned.

A rather mad game and totally different dynamism from the team going forward after a laboured pre-season, some shaky moments at the back will need to be addressed but in all honesty this game could easily have finished 13-5 with the amount of chances the Doves created. Duece making a great scoring start in what is hopefully going to be a hotly contested top scorers race this season, Paul & Scotty getting off to a scoring start after a poor goal return from each last season and happily for the player & the team the return to competitive action of Ryan after 2 seasons out of the game. Thanks to those that turned up but never got on (Gareth & Chris M), this is a big squad but history will show that over the season everyone will get to play plenty of games.