Saturday 7 February 2004 - Hoverspeed Stadium - kick off 3.00pm Dr Martens Premier Division

Before this breathless encounter began City were forced into making one personnel change – with Jason Eaton missing due to a dead leg Josh Jeffries was switched to a rare striking position and Iain Harvey was drafted in for his first appearance of the season. This change also saw a reorganised formation as Harvey lined up in the middle of a back three with Drew Shore and Darren Hawkins operating as wing-backs. And it was this unfamiliar shape that played a large part in giving Dover the room to race into a three goal lead. As early as the third minute the home side carved City open down their right and Millar’s mis-hit cross bounced off the top of the bar. Within minutes City showed they were no more secure down the other flank allowing Carruther’s to run and cross toward Wilkins. Only Matt Coupe’s excellent defensive header denied him a clear cut chance. This escape was only temporary though as on 16 minutes another neat move down the left side saw Skelton cross for Millar to get ahead of Hawkins and plant the ball past a helpless Paul Evans. City responded well to this early blow and twice came close to drawing level. Jim Rollo shot narrowly wide from a neat Owers header after 21 minutes and then a powerful run by Hawkins ended with Bobby Ford curling a right-foot shot beyond Hyde but also the post. Having weathered this brief flurry from City the home side looked to have killed the game with two goals in the space of three minutes. Owers’ poor pass put Harvey in trouble and when the ball was stolen off him by Millar, this allowed Spillar to send Wilkins racing clear. With all the time and space he needed he fired a low shot past Evans. Then Millar reached a pass ahead of Coupe to give Day a shooting chance from which he made no mistake. It looked to have got even worse for City three minutes later when Harvey was harshly adjudged to have pulled down Day in the box. The player got up to take the kick only for Evans to produce an excellent one-handed save low to his right. However, for the third time this season the referee ordered the kick to be retaken. This time Evans didn’t even need to save Day’s effort as he pulled it two yards wide of the post. Suddenly City sensed a glimmer of hope and moments before the interval they appeared to have pulled a goal back. Shore’s corner was met just six yards out by Coupe and his header clearly crossed the line before Browne deflected it up onto the crossbar. The referee and linesman failed to spot this though and the break arrived with City three goals in arrears.

The half time interval saw City abandon their 3-5-2 formation, replacing Harvey with Bristol City trainee Sam Bailey and switch Rollo to right-back. Any hope of a still unlikely comeback rested on City grabbing an early strike in the second half and with less than a minute gone that was exactly what they got. Shore’s free-kick was allowed to drop in the six yard box where Jeffries fired home. This change in the balance of the game was clear and suddenly it was all City. Three minutes before the hour mark they made it 3-2. A Steve Jones cross had already picked out an unmarked Scott Partridge, the former Weymouth striker lifting this chance over the bar, before Shore did exactly the same. This time he brought the ball down and laid it off toward Jeffries. His shot was blocked but the ball fell perfectly for Partridge to blast it home. Half chances fell to Shore and Partridge after this but it began to look as if Dover had regained their composure and would hold on to their now slender lead as the game entered it closing minutes. Then up stepped player manager Owers to put the seal on a famous comeback. Shore and Jones won possession near the corner flag and the latter, rather than just punting a hopeful ball into the box, intelligently squared it to Owers. He was nearly 30 yards out but never wavered in his intention to shoot and the ball flew past Hyde into the bottom corner of the net. The celebrations between the City players and fans were unrestrained. Even though there was not an even more remarkable winning goal the feeling at the final whistle was as if City had finally ended their long barren away league run.