Dover Athletic F.C.
Dover Athletic Football Club are an association
football team that play in the town of Dover, Kent, England. They currently play in the Isthmian League Premier Division, having
failed to earn a position in the newly formed Conference South
league for the 2004-05 season, finishing 19th in the Southern League Premier Division.
The first football club in Dover was formed in 1891, and was known as Dover FC. The club competed in the Kent
League before disbanding in 1910.
Reformed as Dover United in 1920, the new club survived for another thirteen years
before another winding-up operation saw its rebirth as Dover FC. The club was an amateurs until the end of the 1946/47 season, when they were reformed as a
semi-professional club. Dover played in the Kent League until 1959, when the club was admitted to the Southern League. Playing in the First Division, Dover won promotion in 1967, and played in the premiership until they were relegated eleven years later. Despite winning the First
Division title the following season, Dover were not promoted.
In 1983 the club was reformed as Dover Athletic, and under Manager Chris Kinnear, the
club achieved promotion to the Premier Division in 1987/88. They went on to win the Premier Division championship, but were denied promotion to the Conference when their
ground was deemed not to be up to standard. Champions once more in 1992/93 they met the ground requirements and were promoted to the Football Conference.
A solid debut season (8th) was followed by several years of struggle avoiding relegation, with long serving boss Chris
Kinnear, John Ryan, Peter Taylor and Joe O'Sullivan all failing to address the lowly progress. In 1994/95, Dover finished in 20th position (out of 22), but were fortunate that
only two football clubs suffered relegation that season. The 1999/00 season saw the club achieve its highest position(6th) under Bill Williams. However, the following season saw
Dover struggle against relegation, finishing 15th out of 22. Manager Bill Williams left Dover at the end of the season. The
2001/02 season got off to a terrible start under new
manager Gary Bellamy and he was sacked in November. His Replacement Neville Southall was unable to save Dover from finishing bottom of the league and relegation into the
Southern League.
Honours
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