Torquay Utd v Dartford Sat 9 Mar 2024

[Dicky Dart]

In my opinion, although the Board needs to take its share of responsibility, our current predicament is mostly down to Alan Dowson building a sub-standard squad. Relegation to the Isthmian…there’s no quick way back. Clubs on a downer don’t do well. It could take years.

[Taunton Dart]

In my opinion, although the Board needs to take its share of responsibility, our current predicament is mostly down to Alan Dowson building a sub-standard squad. Relegation to the Isthmian…there’s no quick way back. Clubs on a downer don’t do well. It could take years.

I don't think Yeovil fans will agree with you. They were relegated last year after two bad seasons - this year they're only 12 points clear at the top of the table. If, and that is by no means a certainty, if we go down then we can bounce straight back up in a similar fashion to Yeovil

[Park Life]

Taunton Dart's post is spot on, i think he's summed up the game very well.

Thought it was a brave decision to play 3 at the back today but for the first 45 mins we were far the better team, looked organised and created several opportunities, however i can't recall their keep having to make a save of note in the first half.

Second half we make the usual costly error early on and for five minutes we were awful and this ultimately cost us the game.
We did however recover for a bit, pulled one back and their keeper also made a couple of good saves. They started to look nervy again and we scored again only for it to be given offside but at the time i thought Luke timed his run well and it was a good goal. If that had gone in then it would have been an interesting final 15-20 minutes.

However ultimately it's the same things, missed opportunities and mistakes at the back and this has been happening all season so it's nothing to do with bad luck.

First game for Ady and i'd say welcome to our world. Today was a mirror image of so many performances this season, play well for long spells in the game and the first half was as good as we've played all season, but it's same old same old........

IMO we have to get in some reinforcements NOW in a two key positions and that may well be enough, but who and where we can get them from at this time of the season i don't know. Ady, we need your black book mate

Have to say i was disappointed Olly Box was not in the matchday squad and though it was a mistake. If Ady has seen a few of our recent games he would have seen that Olly has been our biggest goal threat so couldn't work that one out.

MOTM - Luke Coulson had another decent game, Clifford played well again but i gave it to Tommy Block who was very impressive.

Support was great today (even at the final whistle) and i think the reason for that was because the players are still giving it a go and if they continue to do that they will get our backing. If it wasn't for an unbelievable mad five minutes who knows what might have happened? Yes i know....

Regardless of what your views are on what's gone wrong does anybody really believe now is a good time to start slagging off?
We ALL need to get behind Ady and the players and give them our total backing as they are still giving it a go and if we turn on each other now, it will only harm ourselves. IMO the inquests can and should wait until the end of the season.

See you at Braintree.

COYD

[Park Life]

I cannot believe fans are not blaming the board . They let the rot under Dowse set in till it was untreatable, then the main man took charge and was hopeless ( yet still was worshipped by a few) then employ someone with ten games to go to keep us up. Dartford is a fantastic club , are these the people to take it forward?

100% the truth most think it many don’t say it

It's not the truth it's an opinion, which everyone is entitled to.

However it's one which i don't agree with and know many others don't either.

[Park Life]

The blame is squarely with the board…..but as the usual old boys say “it’s ok because Dave and the boys are old school”
The writing has been on the wall for a few years unfortunately, dfc will never get back to the heady heights of premier conference football until this board changes fact

You seem to be having trouble with distinguishing facts from opinions.
You are entitled to yours but to name a member of the board who has been ill in hospital for quite some time and nowhere near PP just confirms you haven't been to a game for years. If you had people might have more respect for your "opinions"

[DA1]

Whilst the board are definitely partly to blame for this shambles of a season after extending a contract which wasn’t deserved and the waiting far, far too long to make a change this squad also has the other part of the blame. It’s terrible. They have no quality, no leaders, no fight after going 1-0 down and we just capitulate. I’m really not hopeful.

The club however does need a freshen up with new ideas because we are just going round in circles. We might run a tight ship but I don’t think people realise that the club isn’t in the greatest of positions after a number of poor cup runs whilst I acknowledge we no where near at danger of going out of business. It just needs a bit of oomph injected and what league that’ll be in who knows.

I for one hope we can stay up, take summer to have a proper rebuild and proper refresh, forget this season and push on!

[Tall Dart]

Let's hope ade can sort this mess out. Seems a few minutes cost us the game. Other teams around us are getting results, so that will add to the pressure as well. With ten games left there is no time for blaming really, it is what it is. We had some great news with Jordan coming in, hopefully one or two more. The manager has a task and a half with the time he has been given.... , ain't hindsight a wonderful thing.

[Ozytalksbull]

The blame is squarely with the board…..but as the usual old boys say “it’s ok because Dave and the boys are old school”
The writing has been on the wall for a few years unfortunately, dfc will never get back to the heady heights of premier conference football until this board changes fact

You seem to be having trouble with distinguishing facts from opinions.
You are entitled to yours but to name a member of the board who has been ill in hospital for quite some time and nowhere near PP just confirms you haven't been to a game for years. If you had people might have more respect for your "opinions"

Well if Mr skinner has been in poor health I sincerely hope he gets better soon, but the fact a prolific poster on here said just a few weeks ago he was old school and and the club was in fine condition board wise
And you didn’t comment on that post I wouldn’t have known of his illness
And yes that because I won’t go to games anymore as many who voted with there feet have
So it’s another dig at someone who doesn’t share your views on how the club is being run
The brown nose brigade “it’s our club we’ve been here since 1948!”
As said I didn’t know Mr skinner was unwell my apologies for that, but it won’t alter my opinion
You carry on with your one sided opinions and watch the club falter ,and end up with gates of 200 “loyal old boys”

[Stumpy]

You can all talk about mistakes, poor actions from the board, poor managers.... you can even have dick swinging contests about whose opinion is right or wrong.

Facts are, GOALS WIN GAMES. Despite many strikers and many chances... still no goals. If you can't score goals, it matters not one jot how or how many the opposition score.... you simply won't get a result.

[Taunton Dart]

Well there were 117 supporters at Torquay of all ages, We all saw what was going on and the visible improvements in performance and all the shortcomings. In the first half we were the better side in the second half defensive dithering cost us. Sitting with the fans was our co-Chairman who is a diehard supporter and certainly knows what needs to change. As for those who don't go anymore I fail to see how you can comment on current performances - your opinion counts but I feel you are out of touch with the current workings within the club.

Dowse has left us in disarray with an unbalanced squad with no leaders and some players out of their depth at this level. AP has got very limited time to make signings and has a big task to change things around but there are already signs of his hand at the tiller

[KentC]

I’m not quite ‘getting’ the Board criticism. Unless I’m absolutely missing something. They appear to me to be doing a bloody good job. The Club is healthy. Ok, a shit season and we know where the blame for that lies. But weren’t we all kinda happy with the Board’s decision to appoint Dowson? Ok, I was disappointed his contract was extended. But I fail to see where the Board are culpable for what is, in the overall grand scheme of DFC, a minor blip. Even if we go down, we’ll be back up. And history will prove that the last two seasons were no more than a hiccup. I’d say give em a break or, unless, I AM missing something.

Approved Dowse's useless signings
Too long to sack Dowse
No plan when they did sack him, TB left in interim for far too long

The running of the club overall has been good, however they need to take criticism for this season.

See mark as I’ve told you, I 100% agree with you on this.
Also they’ve done absolutely zero to try and improve constant falling attendances.

PARK LIFE

You genuinely are probably my favourite poster on here and a good read especially around the details of the game.
But you talk about how it’s all about opinions yet your posts about the board are clearly biased and you don’t like it if anyone has anything negative to say.
You said to Bagdahd Billy that many don’t agree with his opinion, guess what, many do.
I’ll give you a fact, lots of people can’t say it regardless of how constructive it is.
You talk about facts, the facts is we are in decline and the fact is the Dartford FC boys club made big mistakes this season what is so plainly obvious but you can not bring yourself to say it.

Attendances declining, Dowse overstaying his wrecking ball style of the club, not having a plan B new manager in place before the inevitable Dowse sacking. Why did TB not get in a fitness coach that Dowse the clown inexplicably didn’t, TB is untouchable isn’t he.

So none of this lays anywhere at the board.

Noone is saying the board are not smart DFC supporters or the club will ever have financial issues due to the running of the club and everyone knows this is the most important thing.

But in your very evident and very crystal clear biased opinion they do no wrong.
Yet it’s very clear they have made mistakes.

There’s a big difference between making mistakes, we all do, and not being ambitious enough.
If anyone thinks the board definitely are ambitious then ok but that’s not what FACTS point towards.
What can not be denied and on a different platform is they’ve made mistakes.
There is a difference.

As for the few saying we’ll come back up you need to look at the bigger picture. It’s not that simple.

The barely ambitious boys club rolls on protected by its blind sided followers and those influenced by them.

The DFC fan base is not all constricted to this forum but then we do absolutely FA to get our huge football mad community though the door anyway.
This must be someone else’s fault too I’m guessing.

[The Duke]

Dress it up all you like that the players are working hard and giving their best BUT the facts are that in the last 10 games we have achieved 4pts [ Welling have achieved 19pts ] which shows that the vast majority of the team are just NOT good enough and unless Ade waves his magic wand [ the Welling Manager did !!] and gets some decent NLS reinforcements I just cant see any reason why this current squad will survive the drop , without dramatic help from others misfortunes

I will be at the Maidstone game on saturday but I go with no confidence , in fact I'm dreading it !!!!!!!!!!

nb Had the Jehovahs knock on the door yesterday , nearly signed up !!!!

[Ozytalksbull]

Kentc absolutely spot on as usual
And yes I agree PL is a great forum poster , and very knowledgeable football wise….but is too biased and loyal to the current board , but I still respect his opinions
I have t at any point commented on the performances as I haven’t been to any games
And I probably won’t , for two reasons I don’t live the area anymore as I needed to get my family away from the traffic hell and and overbuilding in the area
And the second reason being the way young fans and older supporters Were just basically cold shouldered by the club just my humble opinion
But Kentc has put it perfectly
Good luck darts hope relegation is staved off

[Tony H]

Biased opinions in favour of the Board - nonesense!
I’m not going to comment on the game as I wasnt there, nor did I have the usual excellent commentary to guide my opinions ( but from those that were there, we were very good first half, and awful second!)

Back to my point - DFC has to be run as a business especially given our levels of expenditure and revenue. The Board are charged with running the business and do an excellent job in that regard. Just look at the shit-show at both Taunton and Torquay in comparison. My only criticism of them from a football point of view is that they left it too long before sacking Dowse, but have taken appropriate action to remedy on-field “business”. Ten games to go - I’m pretty certain Ady knows the scale of the challenge!

Yes, it’s been a wholly dissapointing season, and what will be will be. Criticism (or opinion) of the sort that I read on here neither helps nor changes a thing!

[Park Life]

I’m not quite ‘getting’ the Board criticism. Unless I’m absolutely missing something. They appear to me to be doing a bloody good job. The Club is healthy. Ok, a shit season and we know where the blame for that lies. But weren’t we all kinda happy with the Board’s decision to appoint Dowson? Ok, I was disappointed his contract was extended. But I fail to see where the Board are culpable for what is, in the overall grand scheme of DFC, a minor blip. Even if we go down, we’ll be back up. And history will prove that the last two seasons were no more than a hiccup. I’d say give em a break or, unless, I AM missing something.

Approved Dowse's useless signings
Too long to sack Dowse
No plan when they did sack him, TB left in interim for far too long

The running of the club overall has been good, however they need to take criticism for this season.

See mark as I’ve told you, I 100% agree with you on this.
Also they’ve done absolutely zero to try and improve constant falling attendances.

PARK LIFE

You genuinely are probably my favourite poster on here and a good read especially around the details of the game.
But you talk about how it’s all about opinions yet your posts about the board are clearly biased and you don’t like it if anyone has anything negative to say.
You said to Bagdahd Billy that many don’t agree with his opinion, guess what, many do.
I’ll give you a fact, lots of people can’t say it regardless of how constructive it is.
You talk about facts, the facts is we are in decline and the fact is the Dartford FC boys club made big mistakes this season what is so plainly obvious but you can not bring yourself to say it.

Attendances declining, Dowse overstaying his wrecking ball style of the club, not having a plan B new manager in place before the inevitable Dowse sacking. Why did TB not get in a fitness coach that Dowse the clown inexplicably didn’t, TB is untouchable isn’t he.

So none of this lays anywhere at the board.

Noone is saying the board are not smart DFC supporters or the club will ever have financial issues due to the running of the club and everyone knows this is the most important thing.

But in your very evident and very crystal clear biased opinion they do no wrong.
Yet it’s very clear they have made mistakes.

There’s a big difference between making mistakes, we all do, and not being ambitious enough.
If anyone thinks the board definitely are ambitious then ok but that’s not what FACTS point towards.
What can not be denied and on a different platform is they’ve made mistakes.
There is a difference.

As for the few saying we’ll come back up you need to look at the bigger picture. It’s not that simple.

The barely ambitious boys club rolls on protected by its blind sided followers and those influenced by them.

The DFC fan base is not all constricted to this forum but then we do absolutely FA to get our huge football mad community though the door anyway.
This must be someone else’s fault too I’m guessing.

You knew i was going to respond mate


How can my "opinions" be biased, it's just my opinion??
No more valid than anyone else's and if someone posts and people disagree it's likely there going to respond but it doesn't make them rose tinted, brown nosed or biased and it's not an us or them situation, just all of us fans who all care giving different opinions.

I can't ever recall giving my opinion and stating it's fact or the truth though as others do?

With regards to our previous manager, or The Buffoon as i called him halfway through LAST season. IMO he has done more damage to our club on and off the field than any other i can ever remember and the blame for our current situation lays entirely with him. He's gone now thank god so doesn't matter what we say about him but i agree with a lot of what you are saying about him. Bizarrely though when he was appointed it was received pretty much unanimously but how wrong were ALL of us. And yes i agree it did take a while to find his replacement but there are reasons for that.

I have said on numerous occasions the club and players have made mistakes, i just choose not to post it on here as in our current circumstances i can't see what good it will do. IMO it will only make the situation worse and reduce our chances of staying up.

So much more we can discuss and i enjoyed our last chat on the terraces and you know where i stand mate so next home game if you want come and have another chat i'll give you an honest opinion on everything, but openly digging the club and players out now will only do harm IMO to our survival chances and i'm desperate to stay up because if we go down, it won't be easy to get promoted.

COYD

[Park Life]

Waking up this morning and thinking back to yesterdays game is soul destroying.
To watch the team play well for a large part of the game but again press the self destruct button is so bloody frustrating and has happened far too many times this season.
However the players have to wise up and manage those crucial moments better rather than just roll over for 5 minutes and throw the game away. Nobody was organising, taking control or using the dark arts and feigning injury to disrupt the play. We need a few leaders who are a bit more street smart to see us through these periods.
Oh and in an earlier post i said we need reinforcements in two key areas but it's three areas

[Ozytalksbull]

A perfect response , can’t disagree with that
Keep the faith I genuinely hope and believe the darts will avoid relegation
Mr pennock is the right appointment at least

[Hitchin Dart79]

In my opinion, although the Board needs to take its share of responsibility, our current predicament is mostly down to Alan Dowson building a sub-standard squad. Relegation to the Isthmian…there’s no quick way back. Clubs on a downer don’t do well. It could take years.

I don't think Yeovil fans will agree with you. They were relegated last year after two bad seasons - this year they're only 12 points clear at the top of the table. If, and that is by no means a certainty, if we go down then we can bounce straight back up in a similar fashion to Yeovil

. Not sure Yeovil who get 3 times the crowds we do and have been in the championship as recently as 2014 are a great comparison

[Park Life]

And yes I agree PL is a great forum poster , and very knowledgeable football wise….

There's plenty that would disagree with you on that

[Taunton Dart]

One thing to say about the club - we may get relegated (or may not as the case may be) BUT we are in a financially sound position unlike yesterday's opponents and Taunton - there may well be more clubs struggling financially that we don't know about. Dowse has now gone to Hemel and may get them relegated as well!!!