The Southern League`s Outstanding Teams - Dover Athletic 1992/93

The first of a series on the league`s outstanding sides.

DOVER ATHLETIC

Under Chris Kinnear, Dover enjoyed great success in the Southern League in the late 1980s and early 90s, finishing as champions in 87/88 and 89/90 and never falling below sixth.

However, acceptance into the Conference wasn`t automatic then and Dover failed to take their place in the top non-League competition until after their third Southern League title success in 1992/93, mainly due to ground grading issues.

Having finished second the previous season, Kinnear`s men sailed to the championship a massive 13 points clear of second-placed Cheltenham Town.

Indeed, Dover lost only eight games in 82 matches in those two seasons – and the first of those was a 42-game campaign.

Despite finishing second in 1991/92, Kinnear re-vamped his squad for 92/93 and out went striker Tony Rogers, sold to Chelmsford City for a then club-record fee of £11,500, Terry Cordice joined him at the Essex side, while other influential players to leave that summer included Lenny Lee to Margate and Leroy Ambrose to a team in Cyprus.

Kinnear brought in ex-Arsenal midfielder RUSSELL MILTON from Hong Kong side Instant Dict, former Sunderland and Blyth Spartans forward STEVE CUGGY from Maidstone United, paid Poole Town £6,000 for forward NICKY DENT and a similar fee to Gravesend & Northfleet for attacking midfielder COLIN BLEWDEN and also signed ex-Tottenham Hotspur, Watford and Wealdstone midfielder COREY BROWNE from Fulham.

Dover got off to a flying start, winning nine of the opening ten league games and only suffering their first defeat when going down 2-1 at Crawley Town on January 19th.

By that time, however, they had amassed 52 points from the first 22 games!

The only game lost at Crabble was when Cheltenham won 1-0 on April 17th which was Dover`s first home defeat for two seasons.

Dover`s outstanding season meant that goalkeeper MAURICE MUNDEN conceded only 33 goals in the 40 league matches with only 7 of those conceded at home.

The goalscoring was shared by the four front runners used by Kinnear – Cuggy, Dent, Blewden and STEVE WARNER, who was an early-season signing from Dagenham.

The consistency of the defence shows that Munden, TONY DIXON, IAIN O`CONNELL, DAVID WALKER and JASON BARTLETT missed only 9 games between them all season.

After finishing eighth in their first season in the Conference, Dover endured a few seasons of struggle, but their supporters will look back fondly on the team of the late 80s and early 90s.