Ebbsfleet United 0 Dover Athletic 1

Match 83/13/1109 - Saturday, 10th May 2014 - Conference South
Play-off Final

Ebbsfleet United (0) 0
Dover Athletic (0) 1 Elder 55
Att. 4,294

Entrance: £8 Senior
Programme: £3
Mileage: 56/7,879

Match Report

To be at Stonebridge Road was an unexpected bonus. A previously arranged BBQ was cancelled because of the threat of heavy rain (and how right they were), leaving yours truly to fake disappointment but, inwardly thinking there’s a classic play-off with my name on it, not that Mrs T didn’t see through that little charade!

As it turned out, classic it wasn’t. For the neutral it was a long way short of a spectacle, but, even the most hard-nosed Ebbsfleet supporter would have to respect the tactical masterpiece that was put in front of them by Dover’s manager Chris Kinnear. In a dour first half, Dover’s back five contained, slowed the game, irritated the hell out of the home support and restricted Ebbsfleet to a Daryl McMahon free kick that whistled narrowly over the bar.

Where Bromley had capitulated at Stonebridge Road from corner kicks in the semi-final, Dover’s central defensive pairing of Sean Raggett and Callum Davies dealt with everything thrown into the box, whilst the dangerous Anthony Cook was forced to switch wings in an attempt to make any sort of impression on the game.

In previous Ebbsfleet games that I’ve seen, McMahon has been allowed to dominate the midfield but Dover shut down his space and reduced his influence to a minimum.

Kinnear’s half-time message may well have been along the lines of “you’ve drawn their sting, now go and hit them with the sucker punch”. Given the history of last summer’s events, it was almost inevitable that the winning goal would come from an ex-player on either side. Preston Edwards, who had sustained a first half head injury that halted proceedings for seven minutes, turned away a Ricky Modeste effort but from the resultant corner, Dover took the lead on 55 minutes. Modeste swung in the corner and from six yards Nathan Elder powered home a header to delight the Whites’ fans assembled behind the goal.

Ebbsfleet responded, Alex Osborne rippled the side netting but really should have done better, but as they poured forward the more likely it looked that they would get picked off a second time. This didn’t happen but despite Steve Brown sending on attacking substitutions and in the final assault, Edwards himself leaving his goal to add to the numbers, Dover comfortably saw the game to its conclusion to deliriously celebrate with their mass of support.

This is the third time that Kinnear has led Dover into the Conference National and with the rebuilding job that was required following the exodus of players to Ebbsfleet last summer this is the one that he may feel the most satisfying. From ending the season fifth in Conference South, Dover may want to send a bottle of champagne the way of Tonbridge goalkeeper Lewis Carey, who had it not been for his penalty save at Longmead against Havant on the last day of the regular season, they would not have made the play-offs at all.