Megabus

Dover Athletic  2  Aldershot Town  0

National League

I suppose when I completed the 92 last season at Portsmouth, and then of course the 90 as it now is (Bury and Coventry City are excluded), at Tottenham Hotspur earlier this season, I needed a new challenge.

The 68, that was going to be it!

68 is the total number of clubs in the National League, if you take the top flight and the two regional feeder leagues into account. However, from a geography point of view, it was going to be slightly 

more difficult, largely due to one club in particular.

With a list of seven, the one that stood out like a beacon of aggravation was Dover Athletic. Thinking it through, if I was to go by car, it meant the M1, the M25, a toll, the M2, the A2 and probably a whole host of lorry related traffic issues as well once into deepest Kent.

Over 200 miles, a couple of changes of clothes, and in all probability I’d no doubt find someone fastened underneath my car hoping to hitch a journey North as I set off to return.

No, it wasn’t a trip that I was looking forward to from a logistics point of view, but then I dropped lucky.

I had thought about the train, but it was looking costly. The usual route I take via Birmingham and the slow rattler to Euston could have done it, but it would have been tight, especially on the way back, to make the connections if anything went wrong or was delayed for any length of time.

But then, someone told me about the Megabus option, now wait a second, we are not talking getting on board a big blue bus with a massive yellow head painted on it, no, we are talking booking a return from Derby to London, only for East Midlands Railways to be owned by Stagecoach, who also own the aforementioned Megabus. Basically you pay a bus fare of a round £25 return, but they put you on the train instead!

So, it was going to be a long day, but in short, taking into account a bus to Derby, a bus in Dover to get to the ground and the train connection into Dover Priory, it was going to cost me a grand total of £46. Cheaper than the petrol, a lot less tiring, and I could have a latch lifter or six while out on the adventure.

The date was set, the final Saturday of January, a home game against Aldershot Town. Yes, the gamble was the weather, but based on the fact I’d be arriving in London before 9am, I could always re-route to a plastic somewhere.

So, the day came, courtesy of a 5am alarm clock and a walk down into Belper to catch the five to six bus into Derby. I was one of two passengers strangely enough, the other being a hospital worker, but once I’d meandered down Siddalls Road to the railway station it was a little bit busier.

The only slight downside to the Megabus tickets are the fact that they don’t scan at the ticket barriers so you need someone to let you through. Although to be fair at no stage did anyone scrutinise the piece of paper I was waving at them, so I could have been holding  set of instructions for an Ikea cabinet for all they cared! Also, no reserved seats, so probably not great for a family day out, but when you are flying solo with a four pack of Carlsberg and some Scotch Eggs, it’s no major issue.

The Sheffield United fans on the train kept me amused with tales of fighting and debauchery, they were going to Millwall, good luck with that one! But the journey passed quickly and with the time just gone 8.40am (we only stopped at Leicester), we were disembarking at St Pancras and the Blades fans were busy Googling pubs to see if they were open yet.

I had a bit of time to kill before heading to the South Eastern Railways platforms on the top of the huge complex that is St Pancras International. You have two types of trains to Dover, fast ones that take around an hour, or slow ones that take nigh on double that. I elected for a fast one, that stopped at Stratford, Ebbsfleet, Ashford and Folkestone, before dumping it’s proverbial load in Dover, and then making it’s way round to Ramsgate and Faversham.

It wasn’t a busy train, but it was a fast train, giving me just enough time to manage some scotch eggs and beef flavour big Hula Hoops. So far I’d abstained on the beer, but as the train trundled through the Port of Dover and into the station, I could smell the Carlsberg round at the Eight Bells…..

So, Dover.

Right, I think when someone coined the phrase ‘Much Maligned’ they were probably thinking of the town. It doesn’t get a good press, which is a shame because it certainly has some features that are attractive to the tourist types. Of course it has a castle, a museum and some white cliffs that were made famous by Dame Vera Lynn if my memory serves me.

Being truthful, the centre isn’t especially nice, but I can honestly say that it wasn’t swarming with immigrants (legal or otherwise), or at least not from what I can tell. The folk didn’t cause me any problems, but then again I didn’t cause them any, and when you spend two hours sat in Wetherspoons you have ample opportunity for things to go wrong!

The Crabble Athletic Ground was too far to walk, uphill, so I did my homework and jumped on a 15 bus from Pencester Street that dropped me a five minute walk from the stadium. The ground is over a mile and a half from the centre of the town, and to be fair it’s set in a nice part of Dover. Built into what seems to be a natural hillside, beneath the stadium is the large cricket field that now looks to be used by rugby. On three sides of the ground it’s surrounded by trees which form a very attractive landscape to Crabble. The Crabble and the town centre could not be further apart in terms of the aesthetics.

What a super ground it is as well. Approaching up the slope, the turnstiles bring you in just to the right hand side of the half way line, and moving anticlockwise you have the social club immediately adjacent. Behind the goal is a smart and atmospheric covered terrace, while on the opposite side of the ground is a shallow seated stand that runs from one end to the other. Straddling the halfway line is what appears to be a corporate area sitting on top of the stand roof, and that is accessed by a path way that leads from the slope at the rear of the stand.

Behind the opposite goal is a similar covered terrace that houses the away fans, while moving back around to the side where the turnstiles are, is a new stand, built with a wooden exterior, that houses the dressing rooms underneath. The stand runs around a third of the length of the pitch.

Dover Athletic’s recent history is not a dull one. Formed on the back of the demise of Dover FC in 1983, they were a lower tier Southern League side until 1988 when they won promotion to the Premier Division. They won the Premier Division twice, the second time in 1993 seeing them promoted to the Conference for the first time.

The Conference years lasted until 2002 when they slipped back to the Southern League and then the Isthmian League. It proved to be a struggle and in 2005 they found themselves inexplicably at Step 4, plying their trade in the Isthmian League First Division South. It took two seasons to get out, but when they did, it lead to back to back promotions and by 2009 they were in the Conference South.

A play-off victory in 2014 saw them promoted back to the Conference Premier, and then they came the closest they’ve ever been to playing in the Football League at the end of the 2015-16 when they lost the play-off semi-final to eventual promoted club Forest Green Rovers.

Now an established club at Step 1 with crowds averaging over 1,000, they are perhaps at a bit of a crossroads. They could push on and be a play-off contender with the right management and investment, or they could be a side that starts each season with the hopes of just staying up. I would put them in the former category, but the National League (as it is now known) is tough and relentless, look at the likes of Chesterfield, Wrexham and AFC Fylde.

From an entertainment perspective it was fine, it would have been better had Aldershot had any kind of threat on goal, but they didn’t, at all! A goal in the first half thanks to a headed effort from skipper Kevin Lokko set Dover on their way, before the brilliantly named Shadrach Ogie scored a really well taken second goal less than ten minutes into the second period.

Kodi Lyons-Foster picked up his second yellow for the Shots shortly afterwards and at that point it was very much game over. Dover march on and start to look up towards the play-off positions, Aldershot go back home again lamenting a poor day at the seaside.

I got the bus back to the centre of town and picked up the first train back to St Pancras. By complete chance, I bumped into a couple of lads I know well from Belper getting off the train, they had been on a corporate session at the West Ham v West Brom game, so we had a natter and a pint before they got an earlier train back to the civilised North.

My train wasn’t too busy and thankfully it was on time, which meant I made the last connection to Belper before the walk back up the hill to Casa Hatt. I set off at 5.15am, and rolled back in at 11pm, with lots of miles, lager and entertainment in between.

It’s good stuff this Megabus lark, next stop Havant & Waterlooville in March, the tickets are already booked. That should complete the 68, might crack a four pack of Carlsberg on the way back to celebrate, complete with scotch egg of course…….