Alright, this is getting a bit silly now. We’ve scored three goals in our past three games, and they’ve been scored on average in the 92nd minute. That’s like planning to do your big shop at Tesco, ten minutes after the store has shut.
That’s not to say I’m not enjoying these last-minute flurries enormously, last night’s most of all. And there’s something of a pattern emerging here…
Last season, seven of us made the trip to Canvey Island and saw us score two injury-time goals to claim the victory. Last night, eleven made the five-hour round-trip to Dover and it was rewarded with a last-gasp net-rattler. Goals come to those who wait, it seems.
Four of the Canvey 7 were part of the Dover XI last night, and we’re thinking of getting T-shirts made. But it was another foursome who deserve the credit last night, the four lads from the Youth Wing, who sang for pretty much the entire 90 minutes and generated an atmosphere in the empty cages at Dover’s massive ground.
I particularly enjoyed them baiting the baffled Dover fans with a few rounds of “have you ever seen the Dover in Norway?” and “Fenix third place, you’ll never say that.”
“Fix your fireplace?” muttered a Dover fan stood in front of me. “What the f*** are they singing about?” Nevermind, mate.
Talking of fireplaces, we started pretty hot last night. The returning Shae Hutchinson and Tolu Ladapo were getting down the flanks and causing Dover bother. But the league-topping hosts quickly established control, and it wasn’t exactly against the run of play when they took the lead.
Our attack broke down on the edge of the box and they moved the ball quickly, and before you could say “bugger”, their striker was bearing down on goal, one-on-one with Toby Bull. Toby ended up taking him out (not in the steak dinner sense) and the penalty was converted.
After that, we went through a sticky 50 minutes. They were creating chances – a tight-angled shot that thwacked the bar being the best of them – but they weren’t exactly battering us, either. Toby made a superb one-on-save with about 15 to go and suddenly a little bit of belief crept into the side. We might get something here.
We won a succession of corners as the game neared its death. A fair few of them were wasted by failing to beat the man at the near post or taking short corners that quickly fell apart, but a couple caused them real bother too. Matty Warren got his head to one in the six-yard box that more hit the keeper than produced a save, and then the keeper dropped one (again, not in the steak dinner sense) shortly afterwards that spread nervousness among their ranks.
In that fateful 92nd minute, we won our final corner. It looked like it had come to nothing, their defender getting his head to it first, but it eventually dropped to Jack Meeres. The new centre-back cracked a Thunderbastard against the bar late on in Saturday’s game; this time he went lower. His bulleted shot somehow whistled through about 18 players and past the blindsided keeper. Eleven people have never made so much noise.
Now, let’s take a quick reality check. No wins in our past ten league games is a worry. We could have done without teams below us winning last night too. But these boys have got spirit. We’ve all seen Lewes teams down the years that have thrown the towel in after going a goal or two down, but this lot stick with it, as the flurry of 90+ goals proves. Even when they’re not playing brilliantly, they’re digging in and nicking points. Give me that over a team of couldn’t-give-a-toss talents any day.
Lewes: Bull, Warren, Spinks, Meeres, Ojemen, Sablier, Allen (Ekpiteta), Antonio, Hutchinson, Ladapo (Jones), Bassett (Finney)
Unused subs: Kaiser, Nano
Supporters Club man of the match: A few contenders. Spinks was solid, Bull made a point-winning save, Meeres’ strike was memorable. But I thought Shae Hutchinson caused them problems with his pace and willingness to run in behind all night.