Dartford v St Albans City Sat 23 Dec 2023

[Dicky Dart]

I was going to rant about Dowson, and I will, but firstly I’ll agree with Grassbank: the referee did a good job. Well done to her. I didn’t even need to slag off the Lino at the car park end first half, and he agreed with me that it was very boring. To be honest, being on the end of bad decisions is the only thing that makes it interesting sometimes.

Now…Dowson: YOUR squad isn’t good enough, you’re unable to improve things, you have no respect for the supporters, and we’re running out of patience with you. Go now! For your sake but mostly for our sake. Leave us while we’re still in the NLS. Whilst we can arm still pretend there were 907 people in the ground. Talking of which, in terms of crowd numbers we’ve not only been overtaken by the giants that are Chatham Town, but today there was 1,112 at Whistable Town v Faversham Town. In the SCEFL Premier (albeit a top-of-the-table match). That’s three divisions below us. If we’re not careful we will fall behind clubs that, being further away from London, don’t have the competition for crowds that we have. Are we happy being a ‘community club’ in front of 3-400?

In terms of today’s game: the first half was boring, boring, boring. Literally nothing happened. I didn’t expect either side would score and I couldn’t even moan at the officials to warm my cockles. 2nd half, I actually thought we started a bit brighter, moved quicker, but…….never really got near their goal. And that’s an issue in itself: Dowson had identified a problem but couldn’t do anything about it. At 0-0 I thought we’d at least defended reasonably well. I thought Odaudu was playing well, although no one else has mentioned him so perhaps I am alone (I think I’ll cope). The game didn’t deserve a goal but Jeffers came up with the one bit of quality. From then on we fell apart. Could’ve been a shit 0-0 but instead any team will look at that result and fancy their chances.

[Lennylenny]

Got to say the lady ref today was best I seen all year She really was top nitch

[Tony H]

As I said on a previous thread, I'd like to see someone like Harrop from Braintree join us. He's young, already experienced at this level and will bring fresh ideas.

The question is why would he move from Braintree to us? And especially after re-signing Baris it seems even more unlikely to happen.

Exactly!!

[Babylon]

As I have said in a previous post APATHY is creeping into our club.
A lot of fans are getting so disappointed at the CRAP. performances, so inevitably they just won't bother to come

Mr Dowson can sit in his office and make phone calls but he needs to be told that his squad ,tactics and managership of our club is nowhere near good enough .Something has to.
change otherwise RELEGATION cannot be ruled out.

[Dicky Dart]

Dowson is too arrogant. The board will have to act as he won’t do the honourable thing. I am not confident that the board will act in the next 24 hours so we are stuck with him for both Welling games, but I feel they will have no option after 30th December.

[rick]

[The 5th Searcher]

I see Dowse completely avoided the question about Baris leaving, instead he chose to waffle. How the hell can you have 2 players signed and then at the last minute it doesn’t happen. Quite clearly the players aren’t signed then are they, they can only be signed once they’ve put pen to paper and everything has gone through.

[The Duke]

Havent been recently basically cause we are crap and even with s Season Ticket it aint worth the effort , I.m told our next home game is late January so I guess with our seasons away form we could well be nearer the bottom than the top , I have never wanted Dartford to lose a game but IF Welling were to beat us twice over Christmas/New Year then I would be nearer to getting my birthday wish on 4th January that many, many other genuine Darts Fans also want !!!!

As a short term measure I am sure that ALL Darts fans would get behind Tony Burman [ respect also for Skip Sawyer ] to see the season out but season 2024'/25 needs a younger , fresh, quality modern Coach to take us forward !!!!!!!!!!

[DA Mikey]

Stale Buns join a growing list of visitors to PP who have said this is the worst Dartford team they have ever seen. I wonder whether it is the component parts or the steermanship, or perhaps a blend of both. All the attacking play we had yesterday (ie. the first half) went through Luke Coulson and / or Ty Miller-Rodney. The former is a player well regarded two seasons ago as one of the best in the National League premier whilst with Bromley. I don’t think we have a terrible squad, but to have only registered a few attempts on goal between Tonbridge and this game is utter crap. There is no way that we will beat Welling home and away, but if we lose both games, the writing must surely be on the wall. This is a sad nadir for PP era DFC.

[Lennylenny]

In the top bar after, a genuine St Albans fan came upto us and said , good luck lads , I hope u stay up!! We all were in shock , but that’s how opposition sides now see us , cannonfoder

[Paulcanary]

In the top bar after, a genuine St Albans fan came upto us and said , good luck lads , I hope u stay up!! We all were in shock , but that’s how opposition sides now see us , cannonfoder

Says it all ………

[KentC]

“First one to score would win the game”
So after they scored you didn’t think we’d win, great mentality.

“Game plan was to keep Jeffers quiet”
Is that it? Tactical genius!

”I signed these players so…..”
So what? Care to elaborate.

I understand why the board chose him to be our Manager but Dowse is an utter disaster for our club in so many ways with so many negative impacts.
Sometimes it doesn’t work out in life and right here right now he is not good enough and dragging the club down in so many ways.

I remember at the time seeing a lot of Woking fans comments on him, they were not over complimentary either.

I can only assume there’s too many issues around sacking like finances etc holding the board back because this will become toxic as Dowse continues to not endear himself to the supporters with his excuses and even criticisms.

Surely it’s just time, and take Tyler with you. I guess we’re lucky St Albans don’t play on a plastic pitch or it could have been 5.

[JCJ]

I don’t think it’s money that is stopping the club sacking him, I believe Kingy was only half way through his contract and we sacked hi,

I believe Dowse has made many friends at the club that are involved in the club and he was apparently brought in not only because of football but to unite the club, which I believe has caused a bigger divide.

All I care about is what happens during 90 minutes of football, and on the performance on the pitch he should have gone weeks ago,

I think he has a total lack of respect to the supporters that come week in week out, he no longer claps the support at the end of the game, he done a manager question and answer night with only people that are in the supporters association, where is the one for all supporters to air their views.
I believe we should here something from the board either they have sacked him (never going to happen) or the reasons why they back him,

Did I hear Dowse right he said we just need to go on a run to be where we want to be if not we will win it next year?

[JCJ]

Also would love to hear from any supporters who think we should back Dowse and their reasoning,

Not for them to be shot down just a sensible discussion on it. We are all entitled to our opinions.

[Hitchin Dart79]

There can’t be any. There comes a time when if the team aren’t doing it, the manager doesn’t know how to get a tune out of the team, the results are poor and by the looks of this latest phase of the season we are going to start conceding a few goals (making it harder to pick up points )then the manager must go….you would hope under his own steam but if not the
Board need to act asap!

[ozymandias]

Didn't go to the game so I can't comment. Didn't look for the results until 5.30pm. And to be honest wasn't surprised at the scoreline.
Some fans want a fresh face as I put a shout in long ago with Steve Morison, but he would be daft to leave Hornchurch as would the Braintree manager be daft to leave.
I want Dowse out.But should he be allowed to stay as it's his mess to sort out, maybe that's the answer. I don't think there is anyone out there at the moment who would touch Dartford FC.
Yes, we're a great club with a big history in the non league game with great facilities. But a team that is looking doomed to Isthmian league football next season. Our one hope is that we have four clubs below us that are really struggling.
Our other vague hope is that Dowse and his team gets it's act together before it's too late.
I'd go for the former.

[Ajaxman DFC]

Initially I was delighted with Dowson's appointment. But I can no longer defend the indefensible. The Baris Altintop affair has all but done it for me. Which leads me to his previous tenure at Woking. He stayed out of the game after his sacking, timing his return to management on his own terms by giving an interview to the Non-League Paper stating his desire to go again with a new club.
In the interim was he just merrily spending his time in the local Working Men's club until Woking paid the remainder of his contract in full?
If that's the case he's still going to cost us whether he goes or not?
Unfortunately it's all irrelevant at the end of the day. The real bad news is Lord Irvine was overheard in conversation with a publican of a local bar, (post Yeovil) defending Dowse with the same excuses he uses in his post match interviews.
Injuries, bad luck etc. It was like listening to Dowse all over again.
So nothing's going to change. As with our second and third seasons in the National League, the board is again out of it's depth when it comes to making the right decisions before it's too late.
I can't see Dowse going anytime soon.
Empty terraces beckon.

[BRASSNECK]

Initially I was delighted with Dowson's appointment. But I can no longer defend the indefensible. The Baris Altintop affair has all but done it for me. Which leads me to his previous tenure at Woking. He stayed out of the game after his sacking, timing his return to management on his own terms by giving an interview to the Non-League Paper stating his desire to go again with a new club.
In the interim was he just merrily spending his time in the local Working Men's club until Woking paid the remainder of his contract in full?
If that's the case he's still going to cost us whether he goes or not?
Unfortunately it's all irrelevant at the end of the day. The real bad news is Lord Irvine was overheard in conversation with a publican of a local bar, (post Yeovil) defending Dowse with the same excuses he uses in his post match interviews.
Injuries, bad luck etc. It was like listening to Dowse all over again.
So nothing's going to change. As with our second and third seasons in the National League, the board is again out of it's depth when it comes to making the right decisions before it's too late.
I can't see Dowse going anytime soon.
Empty terraces beckon.

Baris asked to leave he was struggling with the travelling as he lives In Sudbury and had been late several times for training Dowes wanted him to stay but agreed to let him go.
If you are going to slag our chairman off at least get his name right.

[Park Life]

First half Snalbans had a few early opportunities but on the balance of play we edged the first 45 minutes.
I did say early second half that we always give our opponents opportunities to score and i was worried that if we didn't take the lead the inevitable would happen and sure enough it did. In all honesty there was not much quality from either side but once they took the lead it was game over.
I thought the idea of bringing Chin in was to give us the much needed width and pace we have been lacking, but yesterday he seemed to play most of the game inside?
Players leaving and going out on on loan at a crucial time of the season without any comment form the manager is strange and as for the loan players, Chin was signed on a months loan from 24th November so that finished yesterday and Diarra's is until 6th January. No announcement as yet on these two but if we do lose them both we are in real trouble.

Thought Sam looked sharper today, Miller-Rodney worked hard and whilst MOTM is always difficult when the team haven't played well i'm voting for Luke Coulson. The one player we have who has a bit of quality on the ball.

18th in the league is a not good enough but it's a strange position as we're only 6pts off the play offs or 6pts off relegation spots. But take the last 20 games of last season and add those to this season and on that form we would finish around 15/16th, so maybe avoid relegation. However we're not consistent, haven't been for as long as i can remember and we don't have a team. Just a group of players who are giving it a go every week but not a team. There has also been no improvement in performances since Dowse took over and in all honesty things have got worse. I do believe that the group of players we have are better than the performances but for some reason we are not getting the best out of them. Answers on a postcard........

With regards to the managers position, it's not a nice situation for anyone atm. I don't blame the board as it looked a good appointment and there was overwhelming support at the time. However things are quite clearly not working out but i believe it will sort itself out one way or another in the next few weeks. I guess this is what the board think as well but to say they don't sack manager is ridiculous. We had TB in charge for ages and he decided it was the right time for him to stand down, since then what has happened to those that have followed? I don't recall any of them resigning.
As for comments on the length of contract and not being able to afford a payoff, i would be very surprised and disappointed if the club didn't have a clause in it whereby as they have with previous managers there is a much shorter notice period. If this is not the case then that would be a big mistake and may prove costly as if the pressure continues to build a decision would HAVE to be made.

The atmosphere in the ground was non existent yesterday and has been getting worse for some time. I have to be honest and say i don't really enjoy coming to the games atm and as soon as i arrive a sense of anger overwhelms me, really strange. A lot of fans have gone past the anger stage and now just don't care anymore which is very worrying, it's going to take a massive effort to rebuild this.

[The 5th Searcher]

Initially I was delighted with Dowson's appointment. But I can no longer defend the indefensible. The Baris Altintop affair has all but done it for me. Which leads me to his previous tenure at Woking. He stayed out of the game after his sacking, timing his return to management on his own terms by giving an interview to the Non-League Paper stating his desire to go again with a new club.
In the interim was he just merrily spending his time in the local Working Men's club until Woking paid the remainder of his contract in full?
If that's the case he's still going to cost us whether he goes or not?
Unfortunately it's all irrelevant at the end of the day. The real bad news is Lord Irvine was overheard in conversation with a publican of a local bar, (post Yeovil) defending Dowse with the same excuses he uses in his post match interviews.
Injuries, bad luck etc. It was like listening to Dowse all over again.
So nothing's going to change. As with our second and third seasons in the National League, the board is again out of it's depth when it comes to making the right decisions before it's too late.
I can't see Dowse going anytime soon.
Empty terraces beckon.

Baris asked to leave he was struggling with the travelling as he lives In Sudbury and had been late several times for training Dowes wanted him to stay but agreed to let him go.
If you are going to slag our chairman off at least get his name right.

If that was genuinely the reason why Baris left then why didn’t Dowse just say that when asked the question in his interview, I don’t believe that for one second I’m afraid.