Aveley 2-1 Dover Athletic

A goal at the death denies Dover a point.

Wet and windy conditions at Parkside provided a classic game of two halves with Dover dominating the first and Aveley making the better of the second.

There were late changes to the Dover line up as captain James Dunne pulled up in the warm up and was replaced by Henry Young, with Johnny Oyenuga taking the armband.

Dover created chances in the early stages with a flurry of corners, the first saw Bailey Akehurst’s inswinging corner hit the inside of the far post and one in which defender Jacob Mensah found himself with a ripped shirt inside the penalty area, no foul given.

The next corner was cleared but quickly came back with Zidan Sutherland knocking a through ball on to Nick Dembele who calmly slotted past the keeper and against his former club.

Moments later a great ball by George Nikaj finds Sutherland but his shot is well saved by Jonathan North for a corner.

It was a strong first half from Dover and we deserved the lead and probably should have scored more during our dominant spell. The players had worked hard and had won nearly every battle.

Two minutes into the second half Odelusi was caught in the box by George Nikaj following a corner and soon fired low past David Aziaya from the spot.

It was one way traffic for the rest of the second half as Dover struggled to get out of their own half and soaked up the Aveley onslaught, defending well at times.

The referee signalled for 5 additional minutes at the end of the 90 and after 7 minutes of play Iffy Allen gave a foul away on the right hand side of the pitch. Aveley got their rewards when Ogunrinde finished with a strong header.

A bitter pill to swallow for the Whites who lost a vital point right at the end. We welcome Truro City to Crabble in our next league fixture on Saturday 6 January.

Aveley: North, Ring, Vaz, Odelusi, Jones, Gibbs, Kyei (Ogurinde 86mins), Kelly, Hughes, Krasniqi, Pegrum (Hernandez 68mins). Subs not used: Cochrane, Eze, Brown.

Dover: Aziaya, Oyenuga, Akehurst, Mensah, Holding, Naylor, Young, Wilkinson (Charles-Cook 65mins), Nikaj, Sutherland (Allen 76mins), Dembele (Baptiste 82mins). Subs not used: Hatcher, Powell.

Referee: Adrian George.

Attendance: 568.