St Albans City v Dartford Sat 16 Aug 2025

[KentC]

Was always gonna be difficult after the red but we’re missing a CB or GK who can command the back - same problem as two years ago.

I can deal with the disappointing football but our fans were embarrassing today

I’m away so wasn’t there. Why do you say this.

[Park Life]

Obviously we've had a disappointing start to the season but the sending off and resulting goal form the penalty spot today was a game changing moment imo. Up until then, whilst it wasn't a great game we had edged the first half and had we gone in 0-0 at HT with the slope in our favour second half, i felt we could have gone on and got a result.

Not going to sugar coat it though as obviously there's things we need to work on and a lot of the players have not hit the level of last season yet and if I'm being honest, I'm not sure some look as fit and sharp as last season either.

However, the sending offs and injuries have not helped as the back line has changed every game and it's important to have that settled and organised.

Still think we are short in certain areas and if possible a few additions would help but we know these players are capable of so much more so if they can get going again we can start climbing the table

MOTM, another game i need to think on..........

[Park Life]

[Dart of Herts]

Was always gonna be difficult after the red but we’re missing a CB or GK who can command the back - same problem as two years ago.

I can deal with the disappointing football but our fans were embarrassing today

I’m away so wasn’t there. Why do you say this.

Sorry I didn’t see this before I edited my original post.

20-odd of our younger fans didn’t switch ends at half time to be in amongst the home fans. It appeared to be kicking off after the second goal with a few projectiles coming from Darts fans. A line of stewards had to stand in and separate the two groups. There was then some kind of standoff after FT outside the ground but I didn’t stick around to find out what was happening.

[BrianL]

Desperately looking for positives, I sees that the 4 teams below us all lost, so we stay just outside the relegation spots! And we have the F A Cup Draw on Monday (I assume) to distract us for a few days from the massively disappointing start to the league campaign. It's got to get better!

[Odd-ball]

Was always gonna be difficult after the red but we’re missing a CB or GK who can command the back - same problem as two years ago.

I can deal with the disappointing football but our fans were embarrassing today

I’m away so wasn’t there. Why do you say this.

Sorry I didn’t see this before I edited my original post.

20-odd of our younger fans didn’t switch ends at half time to be in amongst the home fans. It appeared to be kicking off after the second goal with a few projectiles coming from Darts fans. A line of stewards had to stand in and separate the two groups. There was then some kind of standoff after FT outside the ground but I didn’t stick around to find out what was happening.

I was at the other end watching the fight and Was talking about the trouble seems to be some Ebbsfleet fans who are on a ban have started coming to carry on thinking they are football hooligans, same thing happened the other week at home, sad really

[ozymandias]

Very disappointed with yesterdays result. Keeping 11 players on the grass might help the situation. As Ade points out players are letting the side down, him down and the travelling supporters.
Carshalton not to be sniffed at and will probably be our toughest opponents so far. But they have a good manager and if the end of the season result is to be thwarted, a bit of decent defending next Saturday is needed.
Ramsgate on BHM is a bit of a 'wait and see' for me. Who knows what we are in store for?

[Tony H]

Very disappointed with yesterdays result. Keeping 11 players on the grass might help the situation. As Ade points out players are letting the side down, him down and the travelling supporters.
Carshalton not to be sniffed at and will probably be our toughest opponents so far. But they have a good manager and if the end of the season result is to be thwarted, a bit of decent defending next Saturday is needed.
Ramsgate on BHM is a bit of a 'wait and see' for me. Who knows what we are in store for?

Wow Oz, be dissapointed and all that but I’m certain Ady has NOT “pointed out” that players are letting anyone down. Where on Earth has that come from!?

[ozymandias]

Agreed Tony but he does point out that the discipline side of our game is 'killing us'. Which to me and to Ade is a problem., playing 30-50 minutes with 10 players is a big let down to the club, manager and supporters. If you don't come in that category is not my problem.
Admittedly, Ben's sending off was harsh and I have yet to see Michael's incident. But Ade also remarks on the yellow cards that are being dished out to our players.
It's okay saying we were on top up to the sending off incidents is not very comforting to Ade I'm sure. It certainly isn't to me.

[Tony H]

Agreed Tony but he does point out that the discipline side of our game is 'killing us'. Which to me and to Ade is a problem., playing 30-50 minutes with 10 players is a big let down to the club, manager and supporters. If you don't come in that category is not my problem.
Admittedly, Ben's sending off was harsh and I have yet to see Michael's incident. But Ade also remarks on the yellow cards that are being dished out to our players.
It's okay saying we were on top up to the sending off incidents is not very comforting to Ade I'm sure. It certainly isn't to me.

I get you Oz, but a better choice of words might have helped. Take it easy!

[mjsc500]

Never a red

[Dart of Herts]

Never a red

I think both red cards this season have been harsh but not grave injustices. Michael’s hand was extended far enough from his body for the ref to judge it as deliberate.

Both goals came from inexperience at the back. When Whitefield ran forward and was caught out of possession, there was no communication between Smith and Olarewaju who was filling in, leaving the saints player onside and Olarewaju rushing back leading to the penalty and red.

Then it was a really poor decision from Smith that allowed the break and panicked defending for their second. Not sure what Odaudu was doing either.

Don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t do better myself, but it’s well short of the levels I was expecting for a title push. We either need a GK or CB who can be vocal and take command - or one of our existing squad to step up

[The 5th Searcher]

From watching the highlites from the first 3 games our defence is absolutely woeful, slow and has more holes than a Tetley T-Bag.

We seem to be getting caught out so much at the moment, the opposition are clearly out running us on the wings and have figured out that if they play the ball over the top of our defence then their strikers will out pace us to win the ball.

Still early days but Ade needs to look at this and get it resolved quickly before it does to much damage, the red card situation needs to be looked at as well. Personally Michael’s should’ve been a yellow card rather than a red but you won’t get it changed.

Let’s hope we have a solid defence on Saturday and the strikers can start scoring, fingers crossed for 3pts.

[Ken Shabby]

Haven't seen any games as I.live abroad, do I can only generslise, but I was under the impression we seemed to he recruiting well this summer, so the opening games have been beyond disappointing.
Early days, but we need to be a lot better. FWIW, the penalty looked the right decision, but that wasn't a deliberate handball so the red was wrong, and shaped the rest of the game. On the highlights it looked as if the St Albáns players convinced the ref, which is pretty crap refereeing.

[Lars Resort]

Seen a lot of that the first three games Ken.

[Kermo18]

I was surprised to see Micheal given the armband this season, as personally he wouldn’t even be one of my first choice centre backs.
Massively missing an experienced leader at the back to help the young lads out.
Thought we had recruited well in the summer but the first 3 games have highlighted how weak the midfield is.
Samir has been picking up injuries for the last two seasons now and Macleod doesn’t have the best of records either.
Everyone just looks a little off the pace so far compared to the standards set last Xmas onwards.
Plenty of games left so not overly worried at the moment.

[ozymandias]

I agree, having watched the highlights, we were a shambles. Michael was unlucky to be sent off as there were at least three defenders between the lad with the ball and a goalscoring opportunity. But to be honest, I and a few referees, are a bit iffy on the laws of the game.(it's been a while for me, but the refs seem even more vague). I'd have given him a yellow.
But at the end of the game it was almost laughable in our defending and their attacking.
I must admit Michael wouldn't have been my first choice as Captain but I'm buggered if I know who is?
Samir is a part time player, with a shambles of a defence and a misfiring attack . We certainly miss Josh.
Ade has his work cut out with this crowd who are not vastly different from last season. Something is obviously missing and it may be the captaincy as we seem to be a mish-mash of headless chickens.