*BS*Dover Athletic Academy 3 Basingstoke 1
Wednesday 11th January 2012*BF*

Scorers – T. Loynes 2 S.Crane 1
MOM – Connor Coyne

Ali Wren reports:

Dover got off to a bright start and pressed the Basingstoke defence from the off. In the opening minutes of the game Louis Pout whipped in the ball for Sean Raggett to head onto the bar for the first effort of the game, Brett Jones unable to put in the rebound.

Dover kept up with the high tempo and persisted to torment the Basingstoke defense, a bursting run from Luke Girt to get onto the edge of the 18 yard box, set it nicely for Sam Evison to strike, unfortunately he missed the target.

Dover continued to create chances but lacked quality for the final pass which kept breaking down. Then against the run of play Basingstoke got a free kick near the halfway line and hit it long into the Dover penalty area, Ben Humphrey misjudged the flight of the ball, allowing one of the Basingstoke players to come round the back and slot home an easy tap in to make it 1-0.

However this did not faze the Dover players as they went straight back on the attack trying to find an equalizer. In the second half, Whites immediately pressed Basingstoke back. Wise words from the manager Mike Sandmann helped, asking how much do we want to win the game?

Dover won a free kick near the Basingstoke area early into the second half, Louis Pout putting another lovely whipped in ball for Tom Loynes to get a flick on and get Dover the equaliser they deserved.

The game started to heat up with rash challenges being made by both sides. As the ref calmed the game down, Louis Pout gets his second assist of the game with a floated ball to the back post for Brett Jones to head home but a good save from the keeper pushed it out into the path of Tom Loynes, who scored his second goal of the game with an acrobatic finish to give Dover the lead.

The boss thought it was time to make a few substitutions so he took Corey Watts and Sam Evison off and replaced them with Jack Crittenden and Joe Blythe.

Basingstoke began to put pressure on Dover with a few good chances. A corner put in by Basingstoke was poorly cleared and they had an effort from 20 yards too, forcing a great save from Ben Humphrey and cleared off the line by Joe Ellett.

As the game started to draw to a close Dover had another attack and Tom Loynes cut the ball back for Scott Crane to smash home the team’s third goal with an exquisite strike that left the keeper standing.

The team has got off to a great start for 2012, lets keep it going now.

*BS*Next game: Wednesday 18 January at home to Cray in the cup.*BF*