Page 4 - Yate Town FC v Dover Athletic FA Cup 191021

Good afternoon and a very warm welcome to everyone, including the players, management,
directors, and supporters of Dover Athletic, who tonight make the long journey west from
Kent. We hope you enjoy your visit to the South West Interiors stadium and wish you a safe
trip home.
This evening’s fixture is of course a replay following the 1-1 draw that the two sides played
out at Crabble on Saturday. For the travelling Bluebells it was an exciting game and one we
may consider could have been put to bed in the away tie. Huge credit must go to the players
who, after a slightly nervy start, grew into the game buoyed by an early lead and made it a
closely fought contest. In front of a crowd of 568 home fans this was no mean feat. What
we hope for tonight is that we can draw in the local support and get behind this Yate Town
team who are playing an exciting and attacking brand of football. Hopefully we can make
some noise and generate an atmosphere to match the occasion as we welcome tonight’s
visitors from the National League.
Looking back on the visit to Dover it may be that the Whites will be the happier side having
forced the replay after initially falling behind early in Saturday’s encounter, this combined to
playing the final minutes of the game a man down.
Things started perfectly for the visitors – in the eighth minute, following excellent work from
Sam Kamara in midfield to win the ball, Dave Sims-Burgess found Olly Mehew unmarked in
front of goal, and the in-form striker duly dispatched to give Yate an early lead, a carbon
copy of the opener against WSM.
At the other end, Andy Hannah kept the hosts out saving attempts from Aaron Cosgrave and
Yannis Drais. Frenchman Drais was substituted on half time following a collision with Will
Tunnicliff that left him with a serious rib injury - we wish him well.
The second half began with Dover on the attack but, despite lots of pressure, it was Yate
who had the opportunity to extend the lead and potentially finish the game off. Two good
chances both fell to Mehew, the first close range effort followed excellent supply once again
from Sims-Burgess but his shot was smothered by the keeper, the second followed a counter
attack with Yate managing to take advantage of the high pressing White’s defence and
create an overload in in the area but, with the keeper flat footed, Mehew’s shot went
wayward over the bar. Just after the hour mark the Kent outfit who had managed to gain
the momentum and put together a decisive and swift attack which enabled the dangerous
Cosgrave to fire a low cross from the right which evaded everyone apart from the returning
Ricky Miller. The ex-Peterborough striker, who had been testing the Bluebell’s defence since
the re-start, was able to finish from close range and lift the hosts and the crowd.
The game was relatively even until nine minutes from time when the pressure increased on
Andy Hessenthaler’s men as experienced defender and player-coach Reda Johnson, who had
only been on the field for 18 minutes, was shown a red card for an elbow to Sims-Burgess;
the Benin international may be suspended for tonight as a consequence. For the last period
of the game it was the visitors who were able to use the man advantage to pile on the
pressure and provide the anxious fans from both camps with an exciting climax to a good
old fashioned cup tie. The agony continued with six minutes of injury time added by the
match officials. Harding had replaced Mehew and almost got past the Whites defence but
was crowded out before he could get a shot away. It was in the dying minutes that we
thought Sam Kamara may have achieved hero status as his low shot appeared to be goal
bound, however it went agonisingly the wrong side of the upright. Despite some frantic