Hungerford Town (A) - 25th August

[Ring Of Fire]

Returning defeated coach still singing, despite this current transition lark... Amongst others, we’ve had Ring of Fire, You’re Gorgeous (useless), It’s a Heartache & Want you back... Sorry, don’t look back in anger!

[HantsDart]

Well, I guess I'm the lucky one as I was home by 5.30. So before we get carried away by our emotions I think, like Spike, that we should take a step back and consider before we write on here.

Firstly, singling out individuals with limited information is unhelpful. Jamie Philpot probably had the best 45 minutes I've seen him play in the first half today, DSY had 20 minutes to show what he can do and battled hard to deal with very poor service. Alfie Cue's miss from three yards was inexplicable, but that doesn't make him a bad player - just a lad with a lot to learn.

Secondly, it's a team game and at the moment the team is not performing. It's an issue of managing change. Much bigger clubs than Dartford have struggled after long term managers have departed, e.g. Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal, etc. These things take time. And before we theorise about Formations, right now we have to get the players right - OR GET THE RIGHT PLAYERS. It's players that win matches - not formations (not my words but those posted on the walls of many EFL managers). Worrying about formations comes later.

Change is painful and Jamie, Adam and the players will be feeling the pain - as we all are. But it's a process we have to live through. We will come through this. But we must be patient.

[The 5th Searcher]

Believe me Barry I am patient but to put in a performance like today is totally unacceptable especially against a team like Hungerford who had a 16yr old keeper who had sod all to do all game.
If today was better than last week then I'm bloody glad I was still in France.
You may not like my comments or that I've named some players but the likes of Philpott who has played league football it was dire and he was no where near the goal. If as you say he had his best 45 minutes in the 1st half then I'm seriously worried for the rest of the season, I hope he proves me wrong I really do because I can't see where the goals are coming from.

I hope the players all come out fighting on Monday and start to prove me wrong & if they do I'll be the first to come on here and say so but I'm not the only one that has similar views from the last few weeks I'm afraid.

I agree Jamie & Adam need time to sort things and make changes but they need to start acting fast because the performances seem to be getting worse.

[Nobby2]

by reading the comments i am glad i changed my mind about going

[Kebabus]

Sorry...but this form is unexpected for a club like Dartford. Not interested in whether there was a rinsing on the coach, we are interested that our club has the foundations for success. Releasing Wall looks a massive blunder doesn't it? As does taking on a management of old pals. Time to vent the frustration and not stand around patting each other on the back. Not acceptable in any shape of form and I'm still pissed off with the non performance against Hemel after flying in from Saudi.
If we are no where near challenging and not keeping up with our rivals then the club needs to ave a hard look at itself. Hate the fact that Bromley, Maidstone, Dover and Ebbsfleet and even Concorde are light years away from us...let that sink in.

[spike]

Well, I guess I'm the lucky one as I was home by 5.30. So before we get carried away by our emotions I think, like Spike, that we should take a step back and consider before we write on here.

I know I said that but I'm finding it very difficult and will probably crack before the end of this post. The problem for me is that I'm finding it very hard to get past Alex Wall. He was the one player we signed that I was really excited about. He had a proven pedigree of scoring goals and when he was with us before he was awesome. I knew about the risk of injury etc, but I thought we'd analysed that risk when we signed him. As he came through pre-season unscathed it made absolutely no sense to me to dump him before we'd kicked a ball in anger. I was gutted when he went and a little uneasy about the way we did it. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that we are pitiful up front and Wall has scored 6 in 6.

We have now gone four games without scoring, Christ we've even needed 3 penalties to get a single goal!!! Almost all of our new signings are sub-standard, only Ben Greenhalgh would have been good enough to figure in last season's squad. I haven't given up on Philpott, he missed a few today I know but at least he looked lively and I have a feeling he will get better. Billy Roast also looks promising, so I'd keep those three. However, I've seen nothing from the others to suggest they want or deserve to be here. In fact, I felt many of them threw in the towel when we went a goal behind today.

Harry Gerrard's post above is an excellent account of today's events. The only bit I'm not sure about is regarding the strength of today's opponents. Whilst I agree that no game in this league is ever "easy", having seen Hungerford today I would expect the vast majority of our other opponents to be considerably more difficult. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Hungerford towards the lower end of the table, along with ourselves (if things remain as they are).

We've tried moving people about and messing with the formation but I think this amounts to little more than rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. I don't say this lightly, but I genuinely believe that if we don't change the personnel we will get relegated. We were gutless in the second half today and I can think of four players who I'd have out the door immediately and two others who seriously need to up their game if they want to stay. Changes must be made.

[Daveh]

We have a number of academy lads registered this season and I am sure each to a man would give more effort and show more desire than some of those that have played the last few matches.

To my mind, with the current lackluster performances from some "experienced" players, then we have nothing to lose if these youngsters were to be given a chance.

[mick2504]

yes it is early season, yes we have a new management , yes we have different players that have come in, yes it takes time to settle to a new regime BUT the standard that i, and it seems most on here, have witnessed so far defies all of the above as a reason for our performances, they have been pretty awful im afraid and not of the standard for this league , we desperately need to start scoring , let alone winning, or morale and the attendances will just go lower and lower, we need this turning around pronto if we are to achieve a decent position this season.

[Muddy]

I started work at 4pm Friday finished 6am Saturday showered,drove136 miles as I do every week......I can honestly say in 37+years I have never felt so unattached from a Dartford team or management as I do now.
Please someone tell me how a team that missed out on promotion on goal diffference has descended into the shambles we witnessed today,I really don’t get it.
I reallly don’t understand what’s happened....I like many others will follow Dartford over a cliff but please give us a hint of some wings x

[Trevor B]

1st game for me since the hols and having heard all about the previous games and especially last Saturdays I was hoping that against weak opposition we could get a good result.
Full marks to Hungerford though as they were not a strong skillful side but they did keep on trying to play football and show some enthusiasm for the game and should have had more than the one goal which won them the match in the second half.
We had 6 good chances during the game and put 5 wide and only Ben's free kick caused their keeper to make a save.
This was probably the worse Dartford performance I have seen for many years and you could see that several of the players were just not good enough and were happy just to go through the motions appearing to lose the ball more often than not or fail to complete a decent telling pass.
i would say that only two players put in a full effort for 90 minutes and they are in contention for M.O.M. and I gave it to Ben after his effort on goal from the free kick and at least he gets the corners and free kicks past the first defender and into some dangerous areas in the box it's just we have no one to take advantage of these moves and put the ball in the net.

Spike said
It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that we are pitiful up front and Wall has scored 6 in 6.

I have to agree with him we don't seem to have any forwards who can score and today Bradders again looked to be our most likely player to score as at least he tried with shots and headers whilst those around him just stood watching each other with few attempts to win the ball.
But for a season ticket I wouldn't be going to Monday's game and that is the first time in 65 years watching the Darts that I have felt this way and I have no doubt that there are others feeling the same way to.