Hampton & Richmond v Dartford Sat 14 Oct 2023

[Park Life]

Went to the game yesterday hoping we had turned the corner but still wasn't sure what to expect.

First half you could say we had more possession, knocked it around ok and were unlucky to go in two nil down.
Second half you could say we were the better team, put them under lots of pressure and if we had taken our chances could have won the game and were again unlucky.

However that has nothing to do with luck and has happened a few times this season which is really frustrating, as although the league is as competitive as ever, I don't think we've played a team so far this season who on a good day we couldn't have beat. But we haven't had enough good days so far and to score three goals away and lose was so disappointing.

Listened to Dowse's interview and again hear that we need injured players to return and others to show the form they are capable of, but including pre-season we've played well over twenty games now and have still haven't got a settled team and this is after signing 32 players and using 29 so far.

I will be at every game i can physically make supporting my club but we need to go on a good run now as imo, i feel the next few weeks will shape the rest of our season.

COYD

Oh and anyone who would be happy going to a good game and losing 4-3 every week would find themselves standing on pretty empty terraces.

[rambo]

Another frustrating result and not impressed with anything Dowse has said
The fact is the quality of players is the same throughout the squad and it is irrelevant who is injured or who plays
Whoever is selected to play the results will stay the same
Let’s face it we are not good enough to challenge for promotion this season
I carry on regardless supporting the club and team but I am not expecting that anything will be achieved this season

[Spike]

Well it might have been a good game for a neutral, but I'm not now and never going to be neutral. In the first half we had a lot of possession and territory, but were far too timid for my liking and created very little going forward. We posed no real threat to their keeper and then gave away two stupid goals. I expect more from a Dartford team who should be challenging for promotion. The second half was much better and we did give it a real go, and I guess you could say we won the second half 3-2. To be fair, we would probably have won the game if Harvey had put away the penalty with the same aplomb that he did last week's, but I can't help thinking that if we had started the game with the same positivity that we showed in the second half, then the penalty wouldn't have mattered. In any case, Hampton's 4th goal was easily preventable.

Dowse seems a good guy and I will still be there every week, cheering him and the team on from the terraces but I must confess that I have been and continue to be demoralised by many of his interviews, especially pre-season, where he spent so much time talking about our budget and telling us how much harder it was going to be against all of these "big clubs" that are in our division this year, even once stating that we weren't going for the top two places. Fans don't want to hear this stuff and as I have said before, it comes across as though he is talking us down in preparation for disappointment. It seemed that he didn't believe we could succeed, and I don't think you can expect the players and fans to believe if the manager doesn't believe himself. It now feels for all the world as if we are approaching games with an inferiority complex, trying not to lose rather than expecting to win. I'm not sure how or why we have suddenly fallen from being consistent challengers for the top spots, to little minnows hoping to get out of the bottom half, but that is where we find ourselves. Yes, we have a couple of bigger names to contend with, but you play against players not names and they wouldn't be in this division if they were too good for it. In any case, we haven't played any of them yet so it has no bearing on our disappointing results. On the evidence I have seen so far, the league is pretty much the same standard as it has been for the past half a dozen years, ... but we are not, we are average at best. The club officials and all the committee members may well be happy with how things are now going off the field and that is all great, but for the overwhelming majority, it is all about winning football matches ... and trust me, whilst entertaining is fun, the novelty would soon wear off if it didn't come with a significant quantity of winning.

So here we are, deep into October and it still feels like pre-season when it comes to getting our side together. How can you build anything when half your squad is either perpetually injured, unavailable, gone back to their real club, working or going shopping? Of course, there are always exceptional circumstances and personal situations that will occur from time to time, but these should be rare whereas we appear to have an absentee epidemic. I'm fed up hearing about how everything will be all right when we get (insert random names here) back again. My morale was raised significantly with last week's excellent result at Chippenham where Wynter and Johnson bossed the midfield, so how disappointing it was that they were both unexpectedly absent with injuries yesterday. Johnson in particular, was outstanding at Chippenham, but he's not our player anyway and we've only got him for a couple more weeks. We are basically stumbling from one week to the next, with a bunch of part-time attendees, picking our starting XI from those who aren't having a bad hair day and have deigned us with their presence. Okay, that's probably not entirely fair, but it is how it feels. Success is built on stability and we are not going to win anything until we get a squad who are going to turn up and stand up every week.

See you Saturday.

[The Duke]

If Dowse had had a " Motivational Talk Business " he would have gone bust pretty quickly , perhaps he should to listen to Danny Bloor at Welling who is a sensible , no bulls#t Manager who always has a positive view and comes across as a genuine guy , suffice to say the Welling Fans like him as NOT One has called for his head and they are 23rd in the league , I realise this cant go on for ever but they believe he will achieve for them , something many Darts fans are doubting Dowse can do for us ????????

[JCJ]

For the first time for a long time I didn't want to go to this game, might have had something to do with the fact it was being streamed which I did watch, but this season does not have the same feel as previous seasons and I have supported this club since the mid seventies so have seen some really crap seasons which I went every match without hesitation,

The atmosphere is not good at home games which is down to in my opinion banning the youth (I know there are not banned but they might just as well be)
Players seems to be continually injured what has happened to Wall & Sheringham and how bad is Block injury, these 3 plus Allen all seem to go missing last season with injuries, I know Block didn't take a wage last season which was commendable but why did we sign so many injury prone players.

Sorry about the moan but it is so frustrating,

Now to the match that I watched via live stream, i thought we had the better of both halves but went in 2-0 down, but we were a different side in the second half and once we got one back I felt we would go on and win but was disappointed to go 3-2 down wasn't sure what the penalty was given for and watched the highlights back I am still not sure but also was surprised as watching the live stream i didn't realise how good Lewis Manor goal was to make it 3 each . Disappointed to miss our penalty but even more disappointed on how easy it should have been to avoid their 4 goal going in.

I be at the match Saturday and I really hope we are up for it as I m sure the opposition manager will be out to prove a point.

[Lennylenny]

Parklife , if the rubbish we been served up that I’ve seen continues, there will be empty terraces anyway! I was just trying to look at the positives that at least it was entertaining! I fear Saturday, Dowse is clueless where as we all know whatever u think of him , King is not. Dowse has to be told , that statements like if we don’t improve we be bottom half , motivates nobody, and who wants to come to a club playing goofball with apparently the ambition of winning we came 11th cup?

[Lennylenny]

I was going to change it to hoofball but the predictive goofball seems better!!

[KentC]

Parklife , if the rubbish we been served up that I’ve seen continues, there will be empty terraces anyway! I was just trying to look at the positives that at least it was entertaining! I fear Saturday, Dowse is clueless where as we all know whatever u think of him , King is not. Dowse has to be told , that statements like if we don’t improve we be bottom half , motivates nobody, and who wants to come to a club playing goofball with apparently the ambition of winning we came 11th cup?

Ironically Dowse has said several times after losses no problem we will climb the table.
Now he says if we don’t improve we’ll be mid table.

If we don’t improve it’s on him , that’s his job regardless of anything.

Perhaps the board can have a word in his shell like about his interviews.

Remember part of the reason he’s selected is to be more of a community club manager, well hes alienating part of the community with his team’s dreadful style and sometimes criticism of supporters.
The negativity that comes from him doesn’t help, If you watch what he says as a floating fan or a local what does he do to support the club attracting more supporters around the community

[ozymandias]

At 3-3 we seemed to be in control, having been all over the place up until then. Then Harvey's piss poor penalty followed by a sloppy goal saw the end of us.
As said we are a club that is carrying on where we left off last season win one lose one. In fact we don't seem to be doing that.
Dowse want's the like of Wall, Sheringham, Allen and Block off the treatment table, I'd like to see them gone. But that's my opinion. Block is the only one of those 4 that I've seen this season, admittedly I've only seen three games. But to me there is NO quality or heart in this side.
I only hope that Josh is back Saturday because whether H&W are bottom or not we need him, otherwise we will struggle.
I think I'm looking forward to my fourth game of the season. Cos I'm struggling to see a way out of the gloom that is settling over PP.