Dover 1 Gravesend 1 (aet - Dover won 5-4 on pens)

DOVER Athletic will meet either Folkestone Invicta or Margate in the final of the Kent Senior Cup after beating Gravesend & Northfleet on penalties on Tuesday.

Whites keeper Paul Hyde saved the final penalty of the deciding shoot-out to earn a victory that was thoroughly deserved.

Dover should have won the game in normal time against a young Fleet side that included only Paul Wilkerson and skipper Jay Saunders from their usual starting line-up.

They didn't due some profligate finishing, striking the woodwork on a couple of occasions and a faultless display from Wilkerson. Indeed, Fleet's veteran keeper made one quite wonderful save towards the end of the first half, with a one-handed stop that denied Matt Carruthers from point blank range.

Whites looked to have earned the victory their endeavours deserved when they took the lead five minutes into the second session of extra time.

Skipper Craig Cloke played a sublime ball out of defence and the electric pace of substitute Walid Matata took him clear of Fleet's back line before he slotted the ball calmly beyond Wilkerson from 15 yards.

Fleet equalised with just four minutes remaining with what proved to be their only shot on target. It came in route one fashion as Wilkerson's huge clearance picked out Luke Moore's run into the inside left channel and he needed just a single touch to lob the ball over Hyde.

In the lottery of penalties, each of the first nine spot-kicks were successfully converted. Cloke, Carruthers, Matata, James Rogers and Danny Braithwaite were on target for Whites, whilst Moore, Matt Lovell, Chris Eather and James Darvill responded for the Fleet.

Clearly, something had to give and when Hyde guessed right to push Moussa Sidebe's well-placed kick over the bar, Whites place in the final was confirmed.

Dover: Hyde, Vallance, Braithwaite, Readings, Cloke, Hamshare, Hickman (Wilkins 79), Carruthers, Wright (Matata 60), Hogg (Skelton 89), Rogers.