Dover Athletic 2Charlton Athletic XI 2

IN terms of quality football, few matches at the Hoverspeed Stadium this coming season will match what the 405 spectators were treated to during Dover’s final preseason friendly on Saturday.

nd that this was mostly due to the surprisingly strong line-up fielded by Charlton, in which players like Claus Jensen and Matthias Svensson showed their international pedigree, takes nothing away from a spirited performance by Clive Walker’s side.

Walker himself summed up the entertainment value of the game by saying: “I have got to say that that is the first time I have actually enjoyed watching a football match for years. There was some good football played by both sides, but people like Jensen were different class.”

With Clive Mendonca’s testimonial game taking place at The Valley on the same day, it was a surprise to everyone at Dover when Charlton’s starting line-up for this game included six proven Premiership performers in Jensen, Svensson, Chris Bart-Williams, Chris Powell, Graham Stuart and Stephen Hughes.

And, with the Dane Jensen pulling the strings delightfully in midfield, there were times when Dover were chasing shadows in the face of some quick, accurate passing movements.

But, boosted by taking a surprise 2-0 lead inside the first 20 minutes, Whites hung in there defiantly as Charlton’s superior skills gradually reaped dividends and Walker was understandably pleased afterwards.

“I was worried about the second half because I thought they would overrun us in the heat,” he said. “but we still created a few chances ourselves with our pace up front.”

With Craig Wilkins dropping back to a defensive role in a 3-5-2 formation, Simon Glover pressed his claims to start up front alongside Tommy Tyne against Grantham on Saturday with a hard-working 90 minutes playing in the role he enjoys the most, rather than as a left-sided midfielder.

Glover had a couple of late chances to win the game, but Walker was more than happy with a draw after such a testing workout. His side were on the back foot straight from the start, only to snatch a 10th minute lead through a Jamie Day penalty after Svensson had handled a Wilkins header during a goalmouth scramble.

Ten minutes later Whites were two up, but a large share of the blame from the Charlton viewpoint had to be carried by giant French goalie Bertrand Bossu who, under pressure from Andy Arnott, spilled a Day corner and Dean Readings swept home the loose ball.

For Dover to be two up at this stage was somewhat against the run of play and with 25 minutes gone another flowing Charlton move saw them begin to redress the balance when Jensen slid the ball through for Mark Debolla to curl a shot past Paul Hyde.

And within three minutes the Addicks were level, Jensen again providing the ammunition for Debolla to finish impressively.

With an hour still to play, it would not have been surprising if Charlton had banged in three or four more goals. That they didn’t was down to a gritty all-round Whites’ display. Last year they surrendered 10 goals to Gillingham in a similar situation but not this time, and there were chances for both sides in the second half.

Whites did enjoy a piece of good fortune when Charlton sub Alex Varvey struck the underside of the bar, and Hyde did well to block Svensson’s rebound effort having earlier denied the Swede with a superb reflex save from his close-range header.

Another error by Bossu almost gifted Glover a late winner, but a draw was the right result to an excellent game. If only all pre-season friendlies were like this.

Dover Athletic: Hyde, Browne, Dyer, D Readings, Arnott, Wilkins (Chapman 46), Day, Spiller (Martin 90), Glover, Tyne (Amadi 56), Carruthers.