Dartford v St Albans City Sun 7 May 2023 @ 12.30

[dartfordknight]

Hopefully dowse with the full pre season will be able to bring in the players he wants ....lets be honest this league was rubbish quality this season we finished second and we were not a shadow of the team that won promotion years ago ...£bbsfleet paid for the league title the rest of the league everyone was beating everyone ....hopefully next season we can play football on the grass ...imo not one of our current squad could play in the league above ...we need to find some that can !!!!

[Trevor B]

Mark Sweet said

We took the lead and then concede a very sloppy equaliser. How that ball has got to their man from that corner baffles me.

Unfortunately the same way that we conceded other goals during the season as teams have practised their corners including playing a hard low cross along the goal line into the box for a tap in

[Dave T]

I've had a horrible niggling feeling since pre season we would make the play offs but lose in them as the squad looked light in certain areas to me, so whilst I'm gutted I've felt all along we might just come up short, so not completely surprised.

I've never bought into this "late to the party" this season as if that's the case we'll have a fully signed up squad by the end of May, no pressure Dowse

COYD

Absolutely spot on Steve, l couldn't agree more

[Trevor B]

A good team performance and we unfortunately paid for the missed chances in the end and then to lose on penalties
We were the better team but made two mistakes which cost us the win on the day from a rehearsed corner and that first penalty miss but full marks to all of our players who had to take them.
Congratulations to St Albans and good luck playing in the league above I think they will need it and I look forward to us staying where we are getting ready for the new season with a lot of changes I hope in the squad.
M.O.M. to Harvey scoring but also giving 100% whilst he was on the pitch and along with many others I hope he is signed up with us for the new season

[The 5th Searcher]

Man do I hate these bloody play off’s, I never have liked them and really wish it would go back to the original 2 up automatically and not extra bloody games.
Over a season no team in 3rd to 7th deserves to be promoted unless it is also an automatic place. These play offs are just bollox & I hate penalty shoot outs even more.

The guys gave everything out on the field yesterday and the longer it went on the more I could see it was only going to go one way, St Albans way.

We had some many chances during the game and unfortunately only took the one where as SA didn’t have a single chance except the one they luckily scored from at the corner. We really do need to wise up with these corners as SA have caught us out previously with their prepared set pieces and so have other teams. Yesterdays looked a very easy one to have cleared and we just let the ball go straight through.

Anyways the more it looked like penalties the less & less confident I was feeling. The game seemed to be the reversal of the league fixture at home where SA had all the chances but only took one and we went on to Nick the points. This time we had all the chances and only took 1 and they went on to Nick the reward which was a place in the final.

You can’t fault the effort from any player yesterday which is one of the only times I can think of this season, they all gave 100% effort from start to finish.

Our game seemed to seriously be effected when we lost Chinn due to injury as his work rate & closing down was immense and although Pierre put the effort in when he came on he wasn’t anywhere near as effective and didn’t stay out as wide on their winger as Chinn did.

Yesterday was one of the first times I’ve really been able to have a good look at both Bonner & Connor as well as our fullbacks and I have to say that our 2 centre backs were absolutely immense, the work rate & effort from both was superb and Connor was very unlucky to get his yellow card as he clearly won the ball when he beat that cheat Jeffers to the ball before Jeffers decided to make out he was fouled.
Sam at left back was solid and even Max did well and won some solid tackles although he seemed to give their winger to much time & space for my liking.

Now is the time for Dowse to sit down and have some big chats with those he wishes to keep for next season and time to get on the phone to those he wishes to bring in and hopefully build a bigger & better team for next season.
First on the list is Harvey Bradbury please.

I was going to give my MOTM vote to Harvey as he was excellent and seemed to scare the shit out of their defence all game but I eventually gave it to Tom Bonner as he was also solid as a rock, managed to play the whole 120 minutes as well as played on with what looked like an injury. Tom, Connor & Sam all seemed to be carrying knocks during that game but all struggled on unless it was just a case of seriously tired legs.

Congratulations to St Albans on their win, they gave us a great game and played some good football and are probably the best footballing side out of the other teams in the play off’s.

All I can say now is enjoy the summer break guys and wait for all the team news to follow of the goings & comings of players plus the pre season friendlies.

[Mark Sweet]

After having almost 24 hours to reflect on yesterday, and read everyone else's thoughts on here I have to say I agree with the majority. While the overwhelming feeling is still disappointment and it does feel like a massive missed opportunity, I can't fault anyone for the effort yesterday. All of the players gave 100% and we came up just short ultimately losing to the lottery of penalties.

I felt we were the better team despite having less of the ball. St Albans passed it around well but as I mentioned yesterday Ben in goal was not truly tested. The chances we created forced their keeper into some crucial saves and fair play to him he was up to the task. However as we have done many times this season sloppy defending from a set piece has cost us. Just before half time as well which is even more of a killer.

As the time went on and penalties loomed the confidence in a victory was dropping, having Weymouth and Chippenham in the back of my mind however on those occasions we didn't deserve to win the game in the 120 minutes. This was different.

I feel for Samir, having been one of our best players all season for him to miss that penalty must be tough for him to take. I for one hope he is here next season.

And so we must prepare for another season in this league. Like everyone else my feeling is that it will be much tougher next season. Harvey is a player we must try and get on a permanent basis. His work rate up front is unbelievable and he knows where the goal is. We need a 20+ goal striker and with a full season he may be that player.

Chin is another player I'd like to see here again, obviously it would have to be a loan but since he came in this season he was one of our best players in the run in and Dowse would do extremely will to convince Charlton to allow us to have him again. Whether that's a realistic option or not I don't know, but time will tell.

The rest of the squad I'm sure will be improved with new faces. Dowse will have contacts and I look forward to who will be coming in.

[Ajaxman DFC]

Unless we can attract more investment into the club to enable Dowse to get the players he wants, we'll just be making up the numbers again.
Otherwise it looks like Eastbourne will be the new NS Ebbs££fleet, boarding the runaway train next season.

[Taunton Dart]

Next season is going to be very tough. Can't believe Havant will be as bad again. Torquay will be looking for a quick return to the National League (also possibly Yeovil will as well - but they are in disarray). Only one of Oxford and St Afghans will go up - so there will be a lot of clubs looking to be in the promotion mix. As on to that our abysmal away firm in the South West this year - we will have 8 trips down that way next season... .. yesterday we missed a big chance to go up.

Three failures recently - all on penalties - so near and yet so far

[Undercover Elephant]

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/dartford/s ... ce-286580/

Taken from Kent online!

[Park Life]

[M1 South]

How was that not a penalty to us in extra time??
Unbelievable!!

[Park Life]

How was that not a penalty to us in extra time??
Unbelievable!!

Agree, didn't get a good view at the time but it's pretty clear and ref has great view. Small margins..........

[Mark Sweet]

Agree it's a penalty. That's the bit of luck that Dowse said in his interview that teams need to win these games. Although can you call shit refereeing luck?

[Skip]

A good team performance and we unfortunately paid for the missed chances in the end and then to lose on penalties
We were the better team but made two mistakes which cost us the win on the day from a rehearsed corner and that first penalty miss but full marks to all of our players who had to take them.
Congratulations to St Albans and good luck playing in the league above I think they will need it and I look forward to us staying where we are getting ready for the new season with a lot of changes I hope in the squad.
M.O.M. to Harvey scoring but also giving 100% whilst he was on the pitch and along with many others I hope he is signed up with us for the new season

That must the third or fourth time we’ve conceded a goal from a similar corner kick routine against St Albans. And all at our gaff.

Here are the others that I can remember…



2 min 40 seconds for the corner routine goal



3 min 50 seconds for the corner routine goal

Please can someone show this to Dowse prior to out next meeting with Stale Buns?

[PeteSamson]

Yes, indeed it should have been a penalty, with the hand/arm going towards the ball. Seeing the highlights after seeing the streamed game simply reminds me just how much on top we were compared to 3 weeks ago. Our lads couldn't have put more effort into the game.

St Albans didn't really have to perform to the level they did in the earlier game, did they! A draw was sufficient for them to go to the lottery of penalties.
That is why HitchinDart is so right on not having penalties. If the opposition had to beat home team to make it to the next stage, then they would have been forced to come out in their efforts to score, leaving more gaps in their defence.

However, in St Albans defence, and especially in the previous game, from the highlights throughout the season, they have played some of the best football I have seen played at PP.

Kings Lynn have also suffered the same heartache in the Northern division, after battling with AFC Fylde throughout the season, gaining 93 points, but going down at home to Kidderminster Harriers 1-4, in spite of being a massive 24 points ahead of them at the end of the regular season. No wonder I hate playoffs. No merit in them at all.

Well played though Darts.

[Dart of Herts]

Pointless saying it this year as will be seen as sour grapes but from next year there should be no penalties. The team finishing higher should go through after extra time.
The opponents have had 46 games and 120mins to finish above and if they couldn’t do that then shouldn’t have the further lottery of a penalty shoot out to reward them for not doing what they should have done during the season!

And if we finish 6th next season let’s suggest an away goals rule!

[Ajaxman DFC]

The three things that sums up our season are as follows:

1. Too many soft goals conceded.
2. The ratio between chances created and converted unacceptable.
3. The general standard of refereeing in the National South piss poor.

[M1 South]

Have to agree with that Ajax. And regarding your third point, they just don’t seem to know what is & isn’t a foul & get conned too easily by blatant cheating of the utmost shithousery which seems to becoming the norm now!!

[Trevor B]

Skip

My thoughts exactly I was dreading how we were going to defend as they took each corner half expecting them to score and they knew each time what one they were going to use and it resulted in a goal.
On the other hand I don't know if we practise/rehearse our corners as they almost all seem to be hit just to the far post with the hope that someone might get their head to the ball to create a chance or they are hit short and don't clear the first defender.

[ozymandias]

Penalty all the way.