In the first of our new "My favourite match" series, Mark Winter recalls Dover Athletic's triumph in the Premier Inter-League Cup final, which finished with a last-minute winner, a feeble pitch invasion and one unlucky witness losing his job

In mid-December, on my way to a game in Staines, I bumped into Tim Dixon at Clackett Lane services. For those of you who aren't Dover Athletic supporters, this is the equivalent of a Manchester United fan meeting Bobby Charlton at the check-out in Morrisons.

It has been suggested that the best bits of your life flash before your eyes just before you slip away. If that is the case, Dixon's winning goal in the Premier Inter-League Cup (PILC) final of 1991 will be there for me in glorious technicolour, sandwiched between the births of a couple of daughters.

Fans of the non-League game may recall with fondness that, prior to the creation of the Premier League in Year Zero, midweek competitions proliferated for those who steadfastly refused to find something better do. The PILC, christened "the pillock cup" by then Dover boss Chris Kinnear, was the daddy of them all. It was initially contested by members of the (then) Vauxhall Conference and the Isthmian, Northern and Southern leagues. Eventually, the non-League elite tired of slumming it and left it to us feeder clubs to scrap it out between ourselves.

It was in such circumstances that Dover Athletic and Southport made it to the final of the competition, largely unnoticed by anyone other than their certifiably loyal fans, and quite possibly by mistake. The final was never going to be played out in front of a big crowd, but when both clubs agreed to play it at Aylesbury on the first Thursday night in May – any other date would have involved the expense of extending players' contracts beyond the end of the season – we were saved the bother of needing tickets in advance.

A shame, this, as what followed was probably the best live game I ever saw. After a tentative opening ten minutes or so, both sides opted to have fun, express themselves and put on a show for those who had made the effort to turn up.

The game was always destined to be decided by a last-minute goal of the rare type you can somehow see coming ten seconds before it hits the net. With the score at 2-2 and Dover under sustained pressure, winger Leroy Ambrose (who claimed to be 28 for at least 12 years) carried the ball along the left touchline, probably with the intention of wasting the few seconds that would take us into extra time. With the rest of his team-mates pretty much on their knees, Dixon somehow found the wherewithal to make an 80-yard run, get between two much taller defenders and head Ambrose's perfect cross into the top corner.

Cue pandemonium, a spectacularly unsuccessful pitch invasion from three members of the same family, and a photo in the following week's local rag that resulted in the sacking of one poor unfortunate who had taken a sicky.

Nobody bothered with the PILC after that and the trophy is still in our boardroom if you'd like to take a look. Let us know you're coming, as we'll need to unlock the cupboard and give it a quick wipe with a damp cloth. Mark Winter

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