Carshalton Athletic v Dartford Sat 24 Aug 2024

[Grassbank]

Great result so early in the season. Consecutive clean sheets a real bonus. Another tough match awaits on Monday.

Well done Dartford.

[Lars Resort]

Churning out the results. Well done Dart's. Well done team

[Sleightly Deceptive]

Phew! That was a testing watch second half. How many chances did Carshalton want? But if we’re winning ugly thats all good with signs of improvement to come as we settle. Need be on our toes on Monday though.

[Mark Sweet]

Great result against a team that's started well, and a very important 3 points at this early stage of the season. From what I have read the second half was much more of a grind and on another day may not have walked away with the win, certainly last season we'd have dropped points in a game like that.

Still early days, and I hope we will still get better but points on the board at this stage and building momentum is the most important thing.

A big match on Monday, one I'm not sure I am able to attend but will keep everything crossed for another win.

And for Mr Hurley who mentioned my name (again, obsessed much?) on twitter the other night, no I am not 'still' hiding.

COYD!

[KSTDART]

A fantastic 3 points on the road , this was a real hard fought battle . We definitely deserved our lead and was the better team in the first half but Carlshalton put up so much pressure in the second and will probably think they deserved a share of the points .


Olopade beats two defenders and sets up Eddie Dsane to score with a fantastic strike across the keeper

[Paulcanary]

I’m at Rock the Peaks festival in Peak District today - good to see we are ahead

I came down for the Potters Bar game - think I’ll stay away from games lol

I’ll keep away Monday for sure

Great win

[Tony H]

Terrific result on the road. Ground it out and, in the main, limited them to long range hopeful shots even though, at times, their approach play was slick.

Great to see the return of Samir. Let’s not expect too much of him for a game or two until he reaches full match fitness is all I’d say.

Tough call for MoM but for his strength and leadership I’ll give my vote to Josh Hill.

[rick]

[Park Life]

Going into this game i thought it would be a tough place to get a result so credit to Ady and the players as today was a really hard fought victory.

First half both teams had spells when they were on top but neither took complete control. Carshalton never really caused us any major problems so the well taken goal from Eddie was enough to take us into HT 1 nil in front.

Second half other than the odd counter attack we never really posed much of an attacking threat and whilst they had a few efforts on goal, it was a solid defensive display which secured us the points.

Overall i didn't think we retained possession well enough which led to us being under more pressure than we'd like and giving away a few too many free kicks. So the first appearance of Samir today with his quality on the ball should help in that area going forward.

We all know we are a "work in progress" and no doubt there will be some ups and downs along the way, but there are already some encouraging signs.
We look well organised defensively, the players work hard for each other ALL game and we finished full of running (again).
I'm told there is also a good atmosphere in the dressing room and winning when you're not at your best is also a good sign.

It looks as if Ady and his management team are building a good defensive foundation which has helped us get a good few points on the board already.
So a decent start to the season and if we can improve in other areas with a bit of tweaking here and there, who knows

COYD

[Bagdhad Billy]

Well done Ady and the team cracking result ! Think we will really click in gear with a fully fit Samir and our new striker scoring goals like he did last year in a poor Kingstonian side…

Onwards and upwards

[PeteSamson]

Well played Darts and another clean sheet helps too.
With no commentary on the match, but awaiting updates on the forum (thanks PL) it seemed a long time for the score to show FT on the www.footballwebpages website and thankfully we held on for the win. Something we weren't doing last season.

Enjoyed listening to Ady's level headed post match interview and looking forward to being able to tune in for the Chatham match commentary on Monday, in what will be an interesting game after their excellent run last season in this league.

COYD

[Ken Shabby]

Very Happy with another win. Any victory on the road is welcome and it sounds as if Carshalton were a decent team. Early days and so on, but when your team are just starting to gel, and you are three wins out of four, it's looking good.
Same again Monday please.

[rambo]

Very happy with our start to the season and looking forward to the game on Monday
Well done to the management and squad

[The Duke]

I was very impressed with the fight and doggedness that the team showed which ended up grinding out a win which we Dart fans are delighted to see return and shows the character of the team , Carshalton were a good side and Ade will have learned lessons as we didnt really play very well in midfield which gave us " no out " ball and constantly gave the ball away , Sami coming on after 70 mins was encouraging and shows he will make a big contribution when fully fit

The back 4 were immense with Josh Hill my MOTM [ what a leader ] just ahead of Williams and credit to Callum Jones workrate and Dsane's well taken strikers goal

Early days but 100% behind the team as plenty of ups and downs ahead !!!

Looking forward to Chatham on Monday

[KentC]

Kerby was fantastic, not much of a mention on here.

[Spike]

More gritty than pretty, but that was a solid performance and a hard earned win. There's obviously still a lot of room for improvement, but the fact that our work-in-progress team is already getting good results is very encouraging. Defensively we look sound and well organised and fitness levels are much improved on last year as we are still full of running right through to the end. We could do better at not giving the ball away so cheaply and we concede too many needless free kicks, but we are resolute and team spirit is good. It feels like we are on an upward trajectory and you would expect things will improve as we progress. Football is fun again and I am cautiously optimistic for the season ahead.

[Trevor B]

Spike has summed it up for me

More gritty than pretty, but that was a solid performance and a hard earned win. There's obviously still a lot of room for improvement, but the fact that our work-in-progress team is already getting good results is very encouraging. Defensively we look sound and well organised and fitness levels are much improved on last year as we are still full of running right through to the end. We could do better at not giving the ball away so cheaply and we concede too many needless free kicks, but we are resolute and team spirit is good. It feels like we are on an upward trajectory and you would expect things will improve as we progress. Football is fun again and I am cautiously optimistic for the season ahead.

Especially he has mentioned "but we are resolute and team spirit is good" most important and the very thing we had missing last season where nobody was playing for the team the fans and not even for themselves just going through the motions with the exception of 2 or 3 players.
In the first half we looked good going forward and the defence were solid and it was a well taken goal (as Kev's video shows)
Second half we just kept giving the ball away with bad passes and Carshalton played some good moves on the counter attacks which for us fans behind the goal were viewed from a distance with numerous apparent chances but thankfully most either blasted high and wide or some timely defending saved the day.
For the last few minutes we hung on in there lumping the ball long and high just to to clear our lines and use up time and a win was achieved so well done to the team and three valuable points moving us up the table and getting us ready for Monday and the visit of Chatham.

[Dicky Dart]

Cons: we’re conceding possession easily, giving the opposition too much ball in and around our box. We’re not creating enough, probably connected to losing the ball often.

Pros: We look like a team, and we look like a team that can win matches. Defensively we’re playing well, and I’m guilty of not giving yesterday’s back five enough credit. The amount of possession that Carshalton had, to keep a clean sheet was fantastic.
We will improve: we will keep the ball better and we will be stronger in the middle and going forwards. We’ve had a decent start yet we’ve can improve a lot. Things look good, but tomorrow might be a yardstick - a game that I can’t make, unfortunately.