Dartford v Slough Town Tue 5 Sep 2023

[Nin]

[Lennylenny]

Don’t watch unless you are not near anything breakable

[KSTDART]

“” I won’t change the way we play for anyone “”

[Ajaxman DFC]

The dynamics of the sport we love has changed to the detriment of the game. The world of woke has contaminated our society like an aggressive cancer where employers, police officers and teachers etc can no longer excert their authority to maintain discipline and setting standards without fear of caution or worse losing their careers.
And now woke is gradually creeping into football.

I recently found myself in the company of a player who is currently captain of a team in the Isthmian Premiere league.
He's been in the game for a long time and expressed his frustration in no longer being able to give team mates a rollicking if they were slacking.
To the point of being cautioned from above that you can't talk to players like that anymore.

You can't criticise anyone these days and maybe that's why players are reluctant to step up, take responsibility by taking a game by the scruff of the neck for fear of being dragged over the coals for bullying.

And does that mean Dowse is reduced to getting his message across via the media as direct confrontation in the dressing room is now deemed as being inappropriate?

Sir Alex Fergusson must be thinking thank god he retired from Man Utd when he did.
To manage now, in the current climate, like he did would be impossible. He wouldn't have enjoyed half the success now as he achieved then.

Has it really got to the stage where being a leader of men, a captain, is more trouble than it's worth?

Sadly, it's a reflection of our society that a soft underbelly has been created. Which ultimately is dangerous as it only serves to encourage modern day foreign dictators to become more emboldened than ever before.

[Ajaxman DFC]

Don’t watch unless you are not near anything breakable

I've just seen it.
I'm on my way to the Priory Centre in search of a new screen protector right now.

[Lars Resort]

I think that the Slough keeper was beaten by a soft shot that came completely out of the blue . It surprised everyone else in the stadium anyway.

[Lennylenny]

On this forum 2 thirds of fans voted for Archie, he got double the ammount of votes than the rest team put together, yet Dowse says all loanees were poor, why? Because he dribbled, passed and looked exciting? Think he might have to grow three foot, hoof the ball aimlessly and have no vision before Dowse rates him.

[KentC]

Why are we not going for top two Dowse.
No guarantees with anything but you can have a target and the way a lot of teams have started it’s not as if we couldn’t achieve anything or at least compete for the top of the tree.

Woods must be thinking what the f have I done. I come here play well again and get criticised on social media by the manager.
He’s clearly a level up and perhaps AD should play to his ball playing strengths.
Pretty poor from you Dowse and to be fair it’s more than likely you read the forum so you’ll read this or get it communities to you.

Before I watched that interview I kept thinking change is not the right thing right now but I’m not sure what he’s trying to achieve with some of his comments and if a top coach is available have a discussion. Unfortunately the likelihood of someone being available is highly unlikely right now with season alive and kicking.

St Albans is a must win

[DA Mikey]

By the time Slough scored the winner, our boys looked exhausted.
Thinking back ten years to the Premier games, our fitness levels were head and shoulders above what we have now. Noble, Harris, Bradbrook, Burns, Hayes, Bonner - all consummate (semi) professionals who never stood with hands on hips. I once referred to Lee Noble as indefatigable, and I’ll bet he still is!

As annoying as last night’s performance was, I’m reserving judgement for a few games yet. Good results at St.Albans and in home derbies vs. Welling and Angels will lift everyone. There is literally not much further to fall…

[Ajaxman DFC]

By the time Slough scored the winner, our boys looked exhausted.
Thinking back ten years to the Premier games, our fitness levels were head and shoulders above what we have now. Noble, Harris, Bradbrook, Burns, Hayes, Bonner - all consummate (semi) professionals who never stood with hands on hips. I once referred to Lee Noble as indefatigable, and I’ll bet he still is!

As annoying as last night’s performance was, I’m reserving judgement for a few games yet. Good results at St.Albans and in home derbies vs. Welling and Angels will lift everyone. There is literally not zmuch further to fall…

And it didn't go unnoticed that particularly during our first season in the National League we were finishing games stronger than some of the ex-football league clubs who were still full time.
Although I often criticised Tony Burman for the way his teams played I could never fault him for the fitness levels of the players.
I saw him take a training session once. Believe me, the players worked their socks off and for anyone that didn't he was soon on their case.
And I'm not sure we've ever been quite at that level since.

[M1 South]

Rod Stringer was up in the bar last night!!
I had a good chat with him!! I wasn’t fishing (He’s a fellow Spurs fan!! Honest!!)

[KentC]

Rod Stringer was up in the bar last night!!
I had a good chat with him!! I wasn’t fishing (He’s a fellow Spurs fan!! Honest!!)

I’m in no doubt you wouldn’t be fishing with him

[JCJ]

Really frustrated with last night performance but in the back of my mind I thought we had a bad start last season so looked it up.

After 8 games last season we had 12 Points ( so we are 3 points worse off) we then lost in the FA cup and then went on a unbeaten run of 11 games in the league, then lost in the FA Trophy and then went on a run of 10 games unbeaten, and finished runners up in this league.

Dowse needs to get things changed as soon as possible especially as we could do with cup runs this season, I hope he can turn it around like last season but would only give him the next three games to show signs of improvement that includes the cup game against Welling.

In his interview he mentions needing to sit some players down Thursday to chat and maybe let some go and it being his team as he signed them so no excuses from him there. In my opinion I think Alex Wall & Luke Allen are to injury prone and maybe need to be let go so it free up some money for newer players to come in,

[M1 South]

Yes but they will all be under contract so you can’t just ‘Let them go’!!

[KentC]

As much as I really do like him. How often is Charlie available?

[Mark Sweet]

Really frustrated with last night performance but in the back of my mind I thought we had a bad start last season so looked it up.

After 8 games last season we had 12 Points ( so we are 3 points worse off) we then lost in the FA cup and then went on a unbeaten run of 11 games in the league, then lost in the FA Trophy and then went on a run of 10 games unbeaten, and finished runners up in this league.

Dowse needs to get things changed as soon as possible especially as we could do with cup runs this season, I hope he can turn it around like last season but would only give him the next three games to show signs of improvement that includes the cup game against Welling.

In his interview he mentions needing to sit some players down Thursday to chat and maybe let some go and it being his team as he signed them so no excuses from him there. In my opinion I think Alex Wall & Luke Allen are to injury prone and maybe need to be let go so it free up some money for newer players to come in,

That is the part of the interview that stuck out for me. If Dowse is able to move players on and bring in better, more reliable replacements then we'll be fine. If we cannot move those players on and are therefore stuck with this squad and we see no improvement over the next month or so, then I may have to change my stance on the managers position.

Getting players in at this stage of the season is going to be a challenge. There's only so many loans we can have and even they are at risk of being recalled at any moment.

For now, my faith remains in Dowse

[The 5th Searcher]

Just a suggestion to Dowse but may be it would be a good idea to get the likes of Bradbrook, Noble, Bonner, Hayes, Burns, Harris plus any others I’ve forgotten to mention to actually come in and speak to the current squad of players.
Tell them more about playing for the club and the love & passion needed to play at DFC, tell them why they love this club so much.

Those players would put their lives on the line week in week out for DFC when playing, they would die for the club yet the current crop of players really don’t seem to give much of a shit. As long as they get their pay packet each week/month that’s all they care about, with the only exception probably being Tommy Block who refused to take any wages from the club last season when he signed and then got injured before even starting.

The current crop of players need to hear and feel the passion from the former players mentioned and know what the club and fans expect.

[Matt85]

A lot of posts having a pop at Dowse but very few calling out the players.
I stand behind the dugout most games and Dowse was constantly telling the centre backs to play it out wide and keep it simple last night, despite this they continued to just hoof it up field searching for Harvey.
Yes the blame should lay with Dowse for a poor summer of recruitment and he’s admitted that. Clearly some of these new players aren’t good enough to be here or even have half the desire needed to wear the shirt but if they are ignoring basic instructions from the bench then what can he do?
Appointing Luke Coulson captain has been a disaster, his performances this season barring the first game have been dire.
Dowse has taken too many gambles on “injured” players and this is coming back to haunt him.
The number 24 Slough had up top last night (George Alexander) would of been a fantastic loan signing for us, surely we can compete with Slough for players of that quality?
I still have faith in Dowse, he needs to move on any prima donna’s we’ve collected over the summer though before it’s too late, Saturdays team selection should highlight anyone he was referring too in the post match interview.

[KentC]

A lot of posts having a pop at Dowse but very few calling out the players.
I stand behind the dugout most games and Dowse was constantly telling the centre backs to play it out wide and keep it simple last night, despite this they continued to just hoof it up field searching for Harvey.
Yes the blame should lay with Dowse for a poor summer of recruitment and he’s admitted that. Clearly some of these new players aren’t good enough to be here or even have half the desire needed to wear the shirt but if they are ignoring basic instructions from the bench then what can he do?
Appointing Luke Coulson captain has been a disaster, his performances this season barring the first game have been dire.
Dowse has taken too many gambles on “injured” players and this is coming back to haunt him.
The number 24 Slough had up top last night (George Alexander) would of been a fantastic loan signing for us, surely we can compete with Slough for players of that quality?
I still have faith in Dowse, he needs to move on any prima donna’s we’ve collected over the summer though before it’s too late, Saturdays team selection should highlight anyone he was referring too in the post match interview.

I also stand behind the dugout every game.
Did anyone notice in the second half we hardly did any hoofball at all and we did play more on the floor.
The first half however was pure hoofball.

Bottom line is they were excellent going forward and we were poor in most areas and the better team won.

It’s his team so it’s on him and it’s not as if it’s one bad result.

Gonna say it again, having a dig at the loanees what includes Woods is a joke and concerns me he’s losing it.

He’s the top man and I bow to his knowledge and expertise but calling him out was a disgrace, he was superb and our best player in the last two games.

[Matt85]

A lot of posts having a pop at Dowse but very few calling out the players.
I stand behind the dugout most games and Dowse was constantly telling the centre backs to play it out wide and keep it simple last night, despite this they continued to just hoof it up field searching for Harvey.
Yes the blame should lay with Dowse for a poor summer of recruitment and he’s admitted that. Clearly some of these new players aren’t good enough to be here or even have half the desire needed to wear the shirt but if they are ignoring basic instructions from the bench then what can he do?
Appointing Luke Coulson captain has been a disaster, his performances this season barring the first game have been dire.
Dowse has taken too many gambles on “injured” players and this is coming back to haunt him.
The number 24 Slough had up top last night (George Alexander) would of been a fantastic loan signing for us, surely we can compete with Slough for players of that quality?
I still have faith in Dowse, he needs to move on any prima donna’s we’ve collected over the summer though before it’s too late, Saturdays team selection should highlight anyone he was referring too in the post match interview.

I also stand behind the dugout every game.
Did anyone notice in the second half we hardly did any hoofball at all and we did play more on the floor.
The first half however was pure hoofball.

Bottom line is they were excellent going forward and we were poor in most areas and the better team won.

It’s his team so it’s on him and it’s not as if it’s one bad result.

Gonna say it again, having a dig at the loanees what includes Woods is a joke and concerns me he’s losing it.

He’s the top man and I bow to his knowledge and expertise but calling him out was a disgrace, he was superb and our best player in the last two games.

Agree with regards to Woods.
He was by far our best player on the night and the only one who wanted the ball and tried to make things happen.
Not sure having a pop at a young loanee was warranted.