Corinthian Casuals 0 Dover Athletic 5

ALTHOUGH their first-half showing wasn’t much to write home about, a five-star second-half display put Dover two points clear at the top of the Ryman League Division 1 table on Tuesday night.

Whites took the lead after 50 minutes. The goal came when Lee Spiller took a free kick out on the left that zipped across the face of goal, leaving Marc Cumberbatch to nod home a debut goal from close range.

Up to this point Casuals, battered 6-0 just down the road at Tooting on Saturday, had put up admirable resistance.

But following the introduction of substitute Walid Matata for the injured Tommy Tyne, that resistance simply fell away. And it was Matata, latching on to a crossfield ball from Dave Clifford, who carried the ball into the inside right channel before firing low and hard into the bottom right hand corner.

As Casuals’ confidence wilted, Whites had plenty to spare as they went on to win with a comfort that Dover fans, making up the bulk of a meagre crowd, simply couldn’t have envisaged at the interval.

Whites’ third goal was hugely fortunate, with centre back Chris Horwood heading a James Rogers corner past his own keeper.

As Whites continued to go for the jugular, they wrapped things up with two further goals in as many minutes late in the game.

First, Clifford and Rogers combined to send Matata clear behind Casuals’ right flank to cut back a cross for Wilkins to dummy his marker and fire in a shot that keeper Gareth Williams did well to block. However, Anthony Hogg was on hand to fire home the rebound.

And with the home side’s marking all over the place in the final stages Nicky Humphrey, in a rich vein of scoring form at the moment, side-footed home Lee Spiller’s low driven corner from the left to wrap up the scoring.

Dover Ath: Hyde, Browne, Clifford, Hogg, Cumberbatch, Humphrey, Hamshare, Spiller, Wilkins, Tyne (Matata 61), Rogers. Subs not used: Rook, Skelton, Vallance, Smith.