Down the years, Dover Athletic boss Chris Kinnear has enjoyed a record in the FA Cup that many managers can only dream of. 

Yet despite all the bosses success, he has never taken Dover into the competition proper but after this comprehensive drubbing of AFC Rusden & Diamonds, Kinnear finds himself (along with his charges) now just 90 minutes away once again from the promised land!

To be fair, this was an accident waiting to happen for Dover, and until half time you couldn’t help but fear that Dover’s awful Cup luck was about to strike again.  But then seconds after the break, Diamonds keeper Tom Cross came up with an early contender for “Clanger of the Season” when totally unopposed he dropped Ricky Modeste’s cross into his own net, which gave Dover back all momentum – momentum that any side containing a player of the class and guile of Barry Cogan would not relinquish!

And they didn’t and fittingly it was Cogan himself who sealed the win with a goal that was almost slow motion and again left keeper Cross red faced.

All in all this was as comprehensive win as you are likely to see anywhere, yet you cannot help but wonder what might have happened if Cross had dealt with that Modeste cross in the first minute of the second half better than he did!

It could have been oh so different had the visitors taken advantage of a guilt edged chance as early as the fourth minute when Diamonds striker Alfie Taylor, who is the competitions leading scorer thus far, broke into the box only for Mitch Walker in the Dover goal to beat his shot to safety.  On ten minutes the hard working Russell Dunkley glanced a header wide when perhaps he should have got a shout from Rushden skipper Aaron Parkinson who was much better placed.

But that said, Dover were already dominating by this point and already had seen Cross look decidedly uncomfortable under the high ball, and it was little surprise on 13 minutes the keeper was well beaten by Sean Raggett’s thumping header (from Cogan’s exquisite corner) – it was Raggett’s first Dover goal.

Dover then had a Modeste’s diving header ruled out for offside before from Cogan’s next corner (on 18 minutes), Raggett’s central defender partner Richard Orlu left Cross in a heap as he got in front of the keeper to head over – Orlu left shaking his head wondering why he hadn’t scored.

It was Raggett’s turn to hold his head shortly after Walker clattered into his defender whilst punching clear a corner, and its possibly the reason why Raggett was slow to react to Dunkley’s flick a couple of minutes later from Cross’ huge clearance.

It allowed Taylor to race clear and fire across Walker and into the net – it highlighted just why Taylor had scored so many goals in this season’s competition.

Dover could have been back in front on the stroke of half time as following another Cogan corner, keeper Cross was nowhere with his punch attempt causing Raggett a great level of surprise so that the ball reached him, the header flew high over the bar.

And so the second half began, and its still difficult to actually do what happened justice – it was that bizarre!  It looked like a routine gather for the keeper as Modeste’s right wing cross came in, and indeed many of the Dover fans were bemoaning just how poor the delivery was.  Under absolutely no pressure at all Cross dropped the ball into his net and then wished the entrance to the Channel Tunnel was in Dover rather than Cheriton!!!

Just three minutes later, referee Buck looked to have sealed the defeat for the visitors ruling that rampaging Dover skipper Craig Stone as he burst into the box and pointed to the spot for what looked like a very soft penalty indeed.  Perhaps Tom Murphy felt the same way as his spot kick went sailing over the stand at the River End of the ground.

The stuffing had really been knocked out of the visitors and it really was already just a question of how many that Dover were going to score.  Substitute Michael Bakare came agonisingly close to goal number three cutting in from the right before curling the ball round Cross only to see it crash back off of the right post before with just 15 minutes remaining, Cogan made sure of Dover’s progress.  Cutting inside after collecting a cleared corner, Cogan placed the ball through the box and it bounced past a startled Cross and into the net – the ball almost apologised as it literally bounced through the box for the sealing score.

It could have been even worse for Rushden as again keeper Cross went missing from another Cogan corner only to be indebted to Sam Brown who cleared Murphy’s header off of the line before Bakare had a goal ruled out late on.

This was in the end as comprehensive a win as it could have been, and Kinnear will be hoping for just as straight forward a progress in the next round

DOVER ATHLETIC – Walker, Kamara, Wynter, Stone, Raggett, Orlu, Modeste (Bakare 63), Rogers, Elder (Charles 83), Cogan, Murphy

Subs not used – Ademola, Carew, Forbes, Hook, Bellamy

AFC RUSHDEN & DIAMONDS – Cross, Merrill, Brown, Harris, Parkinson, Clarke, Liburd (McBride 83), King, Dunkley, Taylor, Koriya (Allen 75)

Subs not used – Deakin, Whybrow, Gillingwater, Wisniewski, Gearing

Referee – Mr D Rook
Assistants – Mr W Cartmel & Mr S Franklin

Picture supplied by SM Harris