Dartford v Dulwich Hamlet Saturday 8th January

[PeteSamson]

I hadn't realised that SK picked up a caution during the match, as I missed hearing that during the commentary. What prompted that? The commentator seem to suggest the early booking of Jebb was very harsh.

Also good to see Tonbridge Angels picking up three points v Hungerford in their efforts to move away from the danger area of the league table.

[Trevor B]

As others have said a draw was a fair result with Dulwich having the chances in the first have and were the better team and then we came back at them in the second half with more than enough chances that should have sealed a win for us.
We had so many opportunities to shoot at the goal if the players had listened to the fans behind the goal but they were either wasted with one too many touches or shots went wide.
We did get the lucky equaliser which made sure that we got a point but we must take more of our chances and score goals if we are to win matches and remain near the top so here's hoping Kingy can make changes for the next game.

[Tony H]

Yes Steve king he has lost The plot he’s more worried about what he’s wearing then our team

Ridiculous statement!

[Tony H]

I hadn't realised that SK picked up a caution during the match, as I missed hearing that during the commentary. What prompted that? The commentator seem to suggest the early booking of Jebb was very harsh.

Also good to see Tonbridge Angels picking up three points v Hungerford in their efforts to move away from the danger area of the league table.

Thought the referee was poor yesterday, overly fussy, making no allowance for the conditions. SK appeared to be cautioned for something he said, remonstrating that a foul and subsequent injury to KalvinK was not picked up.

Noors caution was equally ridiculous - he made a full-blooded , sliding challenge but pulled out when he realised he wasn’t going to get to the ball.

[Dart Mark]

Is Danny Leonard injured? Been our most creative/exciting player this season

[Spike]

Personally, I didn't think we were THAT bad in the first half or even THAT good in the second. For me, it was a fairly mediocre performance all afternoon and for the most part, I feared we were more likely to lose rather than win the game. Of course, my slightly pessimistic outlook yesterday was probably more to do with our recent dip in form, but looking back now, I think it was a fairly even contest with neither side really doing enough to earn all 3 points. I don't think either side could really complain about the result.

I was a little surprised at Steve King's interview on Radio Kent, especially the stuff about us dominating the second half and peppering their goal with crosses. I agree that their penalty appeal was a dive and the guy should have been booked, but as much as I want to support our manager, I think it's stretching it to say that we dominated play in the second half or at any other time during the game for that matter. As for our crosses, I think that's been our biggest problem in recent weeks and was again yesterday, as 90% of our crosses didn't clear the first man and the few that did were overhit. The service for our strikers from both flanks was very poor in my opinion. Kalala obviously has a great pedigree and on the face of it, should be the answer to our prayers, but he didn't really shine yesterday. Still, early days yet and a few home games on the trot will hopefully give him the opportunity to show us what he can do. Apart from Meade's occasional forays up the pitch, we haven't really had much success from out wide since Danny Leonard's blistering early season form suddenly deserted him and injury hasn't allowed him the chance to recover it. Ade and Jake are prolific goal-scorers and if we could get some decent balls into the box I think that would go a long way to solving our problems.

MOTM Dan Wilks ... without whom it could have been a much worse day indeed.

[rick]

Is Danny Leonard injured? Been our most creative/exciting player this season

I recall Steve King said that Danny had Covid in a recent interview (or maybe I was dreaming?)

[The Futures White]

Is Danny Leonard injured? Been our most creative/exciting player this season

I recall Steve King said that Danny had Covid in a recent interview (or maybe I was dreaming?)

He's also been suffering from a calf injury for a few weeks as well.....as I was reliably informed at the Ebbsfleet match.

[ozymandias]

I do agree with a lot of things said on here and maybe think that SK has been listening to his adversary down at Ebbsfleet too much. I thought we were much better second half and yes, crosses could have been more quality. But I do have to agree with Steve on being unlucky not to have won the game.Four players stood out for me Lalala was giving the defender/or two out on their left a torrid time first half and up until he got subbed. The two wing backs were very good for us albeit, poor crosses let them down.
Josh, when I first saw him play, was a tad off the pace, but has improved a lot in the last two games. Haven't seen a lot of Kedman but I thought he more than did enough for us not to have missed Meade. In fact I thought he was more direct than Jernade.
I could bang on about Noor every week. Again a very good game if sometimes keeping hold of the ball too long at times. But no one was going to get it off him.
Ref was poor early on, felt he didn't take the conditions into consideration. The booking of Jebb was laughable.
Again,disappointed with the result but a steady slight improvement since the Maidstone debacle.
Could easily give my MOTM to Husin, but I am going with Michael Kedman who impressed me.

[The Futures White]

I think that Noor is better when he has a more attacking role rather than the more defensive player of a midfield three. He looked more comfortable yesterday when Tyrique was subbed and he was given a more advanced role. It was also interesting that SK chose Jordan Wynter over Kieran Murtagh as the holding midfielder when he made the substitution.

I also get the point about the quality of crosses into the penalty box yesterday but a few of us at the match commented about how difficult it must be to get the ball off the floor when the pitch was so wet.

[M1 South]

Lean forward over the ball & it stays low, lean back & it rises…..it’s not rocket science!!

[Sleightly Deceptive]

I’ll add my tuppenyworth on the ref too. I do watch our games, quite often, from a referees perspective, having officiated at the level below our league. The first yellow card, (was it Jebb?) was utterly ridiculous and set the ref up for a disastrous afternoon as he had ‘set his stall out.’ When he FAILED to ‘yellow’ Tom Bonner for the ‘easiest booking ever’ (sliding late foul on the half way line in the first half,) he effectively lost control.

I think the standard of refereeing at this level has completely collapsed and I can only put it down to a national shortage and ‘over promoting’ average refs to fill the necessary requirements for this level and above. The only decent ref I’ve seen this season was the dude at Chelmsford. (Though sadly, he missed a blatant penalty for us later on.) Talking of penalties, I thought Dulwich had a decent claim for one just before our goal. But I was 100 yards away - a bit like I was when I was reffing!

[BRASSNECK]

One thing that puzzled me was taking Robinson off again our only natural goal scorer unless he was injured but he didn’t look injured went he went off.

[Sleightly Deceptive]

One thing that puzzled me was taking Robinson off again our only natural goal scorer unless he was injured but he didn’t look injured went he went off.

Yeah - me and Tony H said the same thing at the time. Very strange. And 69 minutes too late. And should’ve been Ade!

[Tony H]

I’ll add my tuppenyworth on the ref too. I do watch our games, quite often, from a referees perspective, having officiated at the level below our league. The first yellow card, (was it Jebb?) was utterly ridiculous and set the ref up for a disastrous afternoon as he had ‘set his stall out.’ When he FAILED to ‘yellow’ Tom Bonner for the ‘easiest booking ever’ (sliding late foul on the half way line in the first half,) he effectively lost control.

I think the standard of refereeing at this level has completely collapsed and I can only put it down to a national shortage and ‘over promoting’ average refs to fill the necessary requirements for this level and above. The only decent ref I’ve seen this season was the dude at Chelmsford. (Though sadly, he missed a blatant penalty for us later on.) Talking of penalties, I thought Dulwich had a decent claim for one just before our goal. But I was 100 yards away - a bit like I was when I was reffing!

Big subject. I refereed at step 5 and lined at steps 3 and 4. Big subject this, and not sure whether the process for promoting referees up the system has changed since I hung up the whistle in 2002 but there does seem to be quite a bit of “fast-tracking” going on.

All referees will make mistakes, as do the players, during the course of the game. All I would ask of them is to apply the Laws of the Game consistently across 90 minutes and to get the big decisions (penalty or no penalty, sendings off) correct.

[The Duke]

Kingy says that we had 30 crosses into the box and Forum posters suggest that the vast majority didnt get past the 1st defender and certainly didnt give our two main strikers opportunities to score . Having identified this as a [ seasons] weakness then surely emphasis should be placed during tues/thurs training nights

One of the very best crossers of a ball [ which accumulated for 100s of goals for the Darts ] was a guy named " Ryan Hayes " who on match day used to practice [ crossing] for 30mins before kick of , perhaps Kingy should acquire his talents on a consultancy basis for tuesday/thurs nights only ??

Why NOT , we have specialist Goalkeeping Coaches ?????

I feel sure that Elliot Bradbrook will give Kingy a reference !!!

[Park Life]

Steve's Post Match Interview:-

[Park Life]

Match Highlights:-

[ozymandias]

What? No deflected shot save by Dan to keep us in the game.

[Park Life]

What? No deflected shot save by Dan to keep us in the game.

Yes??
10 minutes in and in slo mo replay??