After my long and extremely fruitful weekend in Hamburg it was back to pre season friendlies on the last Saturday of July.
Looking at the fixtures in the Non League Paper gave me at least 6 'local' options and after deciding to bring the car into the equation I decided on Dover Athletic vs Dagenham & Redbridge. I have given thought to visiting the Crabble for the last couple of seasons but for one reason or another it had evaded me.
So on a warm lunchtime I jumped in the car for the 70 odd mile journey. The roads were clear and the anticipated journey time of 1 hour 10 mins was about spot on as I drove down Crabble Road with the entrance to the ground appearing on my left.
I parked up in a side street and made me way up to the ground. After stopping briefly to look at the Rugby club which shares the same entrance as the football club I strolled up the short hill to the turnstiles where to my horror I was greeted with the entrance price of £12.00 for an adult....Really it's only a pre season friendly against a lowly East London based league club! Having taken in a sharp gulp of air I begrudgingly paid my entrance fee to the chap at the turnstile.
Don't get me wrong I do not begrudge a non league club charging these prices but for a lightly attended friendly, I still think this is steep.
Once into the ground I was very surprised and pleased at the ground, it's a little gem. 2 stands with seats joining in the middle with a little portakabin stuck on top for execs runs the length of one side while behind the 'home' goal is a long covered terrace and a similar shallower stand at the opposite end.
In the end corner is the tunnel where the players emerge from, and next to that is a small covered seating stand.
The club shop was well stocked and had a good range of programmes both league and non league.
Dagenham fielded a relative strong side with a smattering a 'well known' players with the most well known no doubt being new signing Gavin Hoyte. I must admit I do think this level is a bit too low for him but either John Still is a good salesmen or he has other reasons that aren't finance driven for him to drop to League 2. Dover's big name Nicky Forster he is of course the player manager remained on the bench.
I chose to watch the 1st half from the terrace behind the home goal which the Daggers would attack first.
From the off it was clear that even in a friendly Dagenham were the stronger side forcing a couple of saves from Mitch Walker in the home goal and generally bossing the game. A reckless challenge just outside the 18 yard box led to a Daggers free kick which was duly dispatched hard and low into the corner by Micky Spillane making it 1-0. This score remained and the teams trotted off at half time.
A visit to the bar to see if Wiggo or Cavendish had claimed a gold in the cycling road race on the official day one of the Olympics was met with disappointment as neither had done enough to be in the medals. Off I trotted once more to the club shop to shift through those programmes. A 10 minute rummage later had me with 5 in my hands having carefully picked my prey!
Back out into the sunshine for the 2nd half and I chose to sit in the small stand down by the tunnel for this half which started a bit brighter for the home team as they probed the Daggers defence a bit more. The game ebbed and flowed until Dagenham won another free kick in almost the same position as where they scored the 1st goal from. Same player, same result 2-0.
Both sides made many substitutions as the game changed pace with Dagenham introducing fringe players and youngsters while Dover continued to press for the goal they so craved but not really deserve. As the game wore on Ricky Modeste was tripped in the area and Callum Willcock Duly dispatched the penalty to reduce the arrears, 2-1 and this is how the game ended.
A decent game played in a fairly competitive spirit but the class of the league side did shine through and 2-1 was a fair result with both sides getting a decent work out.
With ground number 302 under my belt I retreated to the car for the journey back to South London via the local Tesco's for a real ale stock up.
Til the next time
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