KoS Test

Hess deserves credit for Dover's success

I think the only way you can describe Dover Athletic’s charge to the Ryman Premier League title is ‘stunning’.
The Whites, under the leadership of former Gillingham legend Andy Hessenthaler, romped to the league title with a 6-0 win against play-off hopefuls Sutton United last Saturday.
You only have to look at the stats and the league table to see how dominant Dover have been this year. As it stands, the Whites have won the title with five games remaining, had just three league defeats and are on the verge of clocking up 100 points.
Many people were convinced Dover would win the league at Christmas as they boasted a lead of 25 points over their nearest rivals Staines Town. However, Hessenthaler knew the job was nowhere near finished.
A lot of credit has to be given to Hessenthaler. He has gathered a group of players who fight for every cause and to top it off, play attractive football. People will say the Dover boss has had a large budget, but at the end of the day, a team wins a title not a group of highly talented individuals. A team with an incredible work ethic is certainly what Hessenthaler has produced.
With Dover’s history full of highs and lows, what is happening at the club must be a delight for the large army of Dover supporters. They know all too well how close the club came to folding so as a football fan I am pleased for them.



I suppose the real test for Dover will begin next season in Blue Square South, where the level of football will rise again. However, after watching the Whites’ relentless charge to promotion this season and the level of football they can produce, I doubt they’ll struggle next year.
In fact, I think if you put the Dover squad in this year’s Blue Square South they would have finished not far short of the play-off positions, which just goes to show their class.
Hessenthaler has shown his eye for players this season with the arrivals of the lively Jerahl Hughes and the experienced Guliano Grazioli, who have helped Dover keep a step ahead of the competition. I am sure he is already thinking about who he would like to bring to the club for a brand new adventure, which begins in August.
I have to agree with Dover chairman Jim Parmenter when he said it is a special story unfolding at Dover and it will not be long before we will all be talking about the Whites in the Football League.

World Cup winner's final blog

WINNING the World Cup was an amazing achievement and I think it’s going to take a while before it finally sinks in that we are world champions.

It was a really tense final against New Zealand and it shows how pressure can get to you because usually we would have no problem in chasing down a score of 166. The main thing is we managed to get over the line and it was an amazing feeling lifting the trophy. It completes four years of hard work building up to this.

It felt a bit strange leaving Australia the next day and to be honest I am already having withdrawal symptoms from the girls in the team. I spent so much time with them, as we all shared rooms, so I’m already looking forward to getting back to training.

When we arrived back in London, somebody told us there were cameras waiting for us which was a bit of a surprise. It was quite funny actually, as we were all having a bit of a laugh walking through the airport then we heard about the cameras so we had to make ourselves look presentable. We had a police escort which was a strange thing for us as a team, but it was nice to have a bit of a welcome back when we returned to England.

We then went to Lord’s where there were some more media, but I think it was just nice to get recognised for our achievement.

Our fitness coach has given us a week off training, but then we’ll be back gunning to add to our trophy haul with the ICC Women’s World Twenty20. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind few weeks but we all realise how big a part we play in raising the profile of the women’s game and we certainly won’t be resting on our laurels.

Greed in football knows no boundaries

I IMAGINE it’s been a pretty good week for the top brass at the Premier League. Not only have they got away without the slightest bit of criticism over the Carlos Tevez affair, but they’ve saved themselves a few bob in the process.

West Ham and Sheffield United settled out of court last week with a figure of £20 million over five years believed to be paid to the Blades by the Hammers. In itself it looks like an admission of guilt from West Ham’s hierarchy, but for most football fans after two years of hearing the same story over and over again, it felt like the end, or so they thought.

Now former Blades manager Neil Warnock and his Sheffield United team of the time are threatening to sue West Ham for loss of earnings. There is an argument that they have a case, but where does this end? Surely Sheffield United supporters have a case for missing out on watching Premier League football.

While it appears West Ham were not as forthcoming with the facts about the third party involvement in the signing of Tevez in 2007 as they have led us to believe, they were punished at the time of committing the crime. £5.5 million by the Premier League to be exact. Should they have been docked points at the time which would have certainly seen them relegated? The answer after this week’s out of court settlement appears to be yes.

With West Ham eight points shy of safety when the Premier League made its announcement two years ago, clearly the thinking behind the decision was that the Hammers were already doomed, so a fine would be more appropriate. That was the Premier League’s decision made at the time, right or wrong and as far as they were concerned they paid their dues. The fact Sheffield United failed to stay up was as a result of their own shortfalls over the course of the season, including being unable to beat Wigan Athletic – a team in a similar position – on the last day of the season.

Rather than launching a campaign for compensation – a figure they believed to be in the region of £50 million – from West Ham, why on earth didn’t they put all their efforts into campaigning against the Premier League’s decision. Kevin McCabe and Sheffield United never gave up, and fair play to them for that, but surely their efforts would have been better served in trying to actually regain Premier League status, rather than chasing the pound note.

Will £20 million, at £4 million a year, get them back in the Premier League and will it all be spent on trying to do so? Who knows. But one thing is for sure, the Premier League have got away with making their decision scot-free and allowed one of their clubs to carry the can for it.

What do you think?


Glenn Pearson

Has standard of football dropped this year?

I'VE seen my fair share of Ryman Premier games this season and I have to say the standard of the division doesn't appear to be anything like it was last year.

Dover Athletic are head and shoulders above the rest and deserve to win the league, but what of the rest below? Last season the division was so close, with just a handful of points between the teams battling for the play-offs and those fighting against relegation.

Carshalton flattered to deceive last season, but have improved this campaign and are one of the better footballing sides in the Ryman Premier. Under Terry Yorath, Margate have looked to pass the ball and Maidstone earlier in the season looked a side that could move the ball.

The amount of times you see games in which teams are so wasteful with the ball and with the majority of players looking to play direct, it's not made for good viewing.

It seems these days, despite the wishes of their managers, some players are happy to just get rid of the ball. Perhaps Dover's short time in the division might give other teams something to think about for next season.

What do you think? Are there teams out there playing good football?

Glenn Pearson

Lydia Greenway's KOS Blog - entry six

Wednesday's game against Australia was our last before what will be the biggest one of our lives on Sunday, the World Cup final.

Playing Australia and knowing we were already in the final with them not being in it was a surreal feeling. This feeling did not last long though; this game was never going to be taken lightly by any of us. We wanted to win.

Winning the toss we were in to bat and off to a good start with a four off the first ball. Caroline [Atkins] and Sarah [Taylor] got us to 18, before the first wicket fell. Claire Taylor (Tails) joined Sarah and it wasn't long before the next wicket fell.

Our captain Charlotte [Edwards] came out to join Claire, with myself next in. The crowd was the biggest and noisiest one of the tournament so far (2,214) and I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous.

Lottie was out and I was in and at 50 for 3 we were struggling. Tails and I knew we had a tough job ahead of us to consolidate but also keep the scoreboard ticking. We managed to do this and got us to 106 - 3 of 30 overs until I was stumped for 22.

I was so disappointed to be out because I felt if Tails and I were still in with 15 overs to go we could look to play more shots and up the run rate. From then on there was a steady fall of wickets and we never got ourselves into the position where we could go on and put the Australian fielders and bowlers under pressure. We finished on 161 all out.

There was no time to dwell on our batting performance and we knew we had to hit the ground running and get early wickets. We also had a change of tactic and opened with Laura Marsh, our off-spin bowler. We felt if we could put pressure on the batters early and force them to play shots against spin we could be in with a chance.

Unfortunately for us this didn't happen and credit to the Australians, they came at us hard and at 60-0 they were in a strong position. We weren't going to give up without a fight and we managed to get a couple of wickets. This however only delayed the time in which they got the runs; the game was won by the Aussies in the 34th over.

This was by far our worst performance of the tournament and with the World Cup final only a couple of days away we are getting our heads down and working on putting things right.

On a personal note I was pleased with the start I got batting but so disappointed in the timing of how I got out. Fielding-wise I was happy with how I fielded and happier still when I got fielder of the day. This is something our Assistant Coach Jack started last summer - whoever he thinks fields the best on the day gets a cuddly toy!! This time it was a boxing kanagaroo!

That evening Beth [Morgan] and I caught up with some friends and went to a lovely Greek restaurant not far from our hotel, although it was a bit posher than we thought and, though we probably didn't fit in with the attire (cocktail dresses and suits!) we went in anyway and the food was lovely.

Now all our focus is on Sunday and I know that our whole squad will be doing everything we can to bring the World Cup back home with us.

FIA decision is backward step

IN my opinion, the new points system introduced by the FIA is another backward step for Formula One which has seen far too many changes in the last few years.

The latest rule change to follow a whole raft for the 2009 season, will see the driver’s title decided by the amount of wins. This is nothing new in many ways. The amount of wins a driver recorded in a season was always used as a tie-breaker if two or more drivers ended the season on the same points. The new rule has sparked once again more controversy, which the sport is becoming more renowned for than the actual racing it is supposed to be about.

Not only has this been sprung upon teams a mere two weeks before the opening round of the season in Australia, but it really does not solve a problem. In fact it seems the FIA have tried to solve a problem, which just isn’t there to begin with.

I admit the current points system does not really work in the sense that a win is not rewarded with enough points - just ten in fact. Drivers, who are consistent seem to reap the rewards as a second place finish earns eight points and third pick up six.

Introducing the wins system means drivers will try harder for victories, but it will hurt smaller teams. Teams who are unlikely to win races may lose out if we have a situation like Brazil 2003 where the Jordan team won a race. The driver would be immediately above the pecking order of other drivers who finish regularly in the points because he has won a race with the new system. With the economic climate as it is, every finish will be crucial for prize money.

However, the situation we could be handed with, which would be a detriment to the sport is this: If one driver is so dominant he may win - let’s say nine races out of the 17 - which would be easily enough for the title. This would mean the driver would not need to try for the remainder of the year contributing to a boring season. Under the old system he would have to keep going right down until he had made the title mathematically safe.

The changes have sparked a mixed reaction from drivers with Williams’ Nico Rosberg labelling the system ‘nonsense’ and Jenson Button has said that once drivers have got enough wins they will stop trying.

If the new system was used last year, Felipe Mass would have won the title and not Lewis Hamilton. The way I look at it is Formula One should be about the racing. The most successful and consistent driver over the season should be the champion.

I for one just can’t understand why a sport has to be tampered with so much so that we have lost the true essence of what Formula One is; man and machine combining to be the best.

Tom Howard