Chichester City v Dartford Sat 18 Apr 2026

[Ajaxman DFC]

Prime development land for the council ….don’t trust em one bit

Will be interesting to see what becomes of VCD's ground. Sounds like they've been sold out by an unscrupulous hotelier.

[Harry]

Unfortunatley the fact is this will be our lowest league placing for 15 years.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for DFC to compete at NS level, however there are other clubs who have managed relative success with smaller crowds, significantly worse facilities and historically being a smaller club.

We are in an excellent catchment area for both players and fans, we have facilities that would hold their own in the national league or even league two.

We do have a good academy that has produced several players for our first team, and others that are playing at a higher level. There are positives, including the excellent womens team.

Every season in this league is a season below the level we "should" be competitively playing at.

[Paulcanary]

Unfortunatley the fact is this will be our lowest league placing for 15 years.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for DFC to compete at NS level, however there are other clubs who have managed relative success with smaller crowds, significantly worse facilities and historically being a smaller club.

We are in an excellent catchment area for both players and fans, we have facilities that would hold their own in the national league or even league two.

We do have a good academy that has produced several players for our first team, and others that are playing at a higher level. There are positives, including the excellent womens team.

Every season in this league is a season below the level we "should" be competitively playing at.

Very good post

An away in Athens for a gig so was never going to Chichester but I’ve never felt so deflated with a season - 2009 I recall being the year - a long time ago

I’m not settling for more of this coz for a thousand reasons.

[KentC]

PL constructively says what I emotionally think. The pattern of the decline is there to see.

[Matt85]

I think it’s fair to say this season has been a disaster ever since the first ball was kicked.
Another summer of poor recruitment was followed by a terrible choice of captain and vice.

The reluctance to play a front 3 that doesn’t contain Callum has also cost us. Callum had a very good season last year but has failed to get anywhere near those standards this season. A front 3 of Olly and Eddie either side of Dan smith would have been my choice.

The signing of Dave winfield was bizarre, why sign someone who you know could be recalled. All it did was unsettle a solid pairing of George and Joe tennant.

We then sign kouassi from hashtag despite having only signed Rohan a few weeks before.
What was the point in signing kouassi and then leaving him on the bench every week.

A big summer ahead where I expect several of the squad may leave. Personally I don’t think i would trust Ady to ever build a squad capable of getting us out of this league.

Big decision ahead for the board and one that needs to be made very quickly. Attendances are dwindling and I don’t think an announcement of a new contact for Ady will do much to make people eager to come back next year.

New season = new manager.

[Ozytalksbull]

Is it a priority to get a new manager in regular fans opinions?? Surely as has been said the board control decisions and the budget
But have they been making the right decisions over the last five years ?
And mark sweets opinion doesn’t really count in my humble opinion . Commercial decisions help with the budget and the decision to ban youths was a poor one
The future of dfc is in the hands of the current board , but they need to think fast or get more knowledgeable people in, another manager imo will not change things

[DA Mikey]

Absolute belter of a weekend in Chi. The decent weather allowed us to party like youngsters until 2am. Well, sort of. Only slight pity was that more Darts didn’t stop over to give it that town takeover vibe akin to Truro back in 2012 or Bognor / Butlins two years before that. The obvious reason for this being in 2010 we had been crowned IPL champions by end of March and two years later our playoff place (2nd) was guaranteed to ultimately set up the 1-0 playoff final victory over Welling to gain promotion to the Conference Premier. This season by contrast has been far less triumphant. Not only did the first two months’ results mean we were out of the title race by October, but also out of the FA cup & trophy at the first knockings yet again. Very difficult to stay motivated after all that and it showed. The form table shows us 2nd and having scored the most goals, but poor organisation at the start of the campaign has rendered all the decent effort pointless in harsh reality.

To have three or four goals ruled offside was hard to take yesterday. We were the better side, deserved to win and are now at a stage whereby a draw away to mid-table opposition is a big disappointment. But it’s too late, damage proved too much and comments about reaching playoffs being an “amazing achievement” is a shambles. Pinder’s season has been pretty good and he gets my vote for yesterday's game.

[Spike]

I presume the board will be organising an open top bus through the town to celebrate the "double" of our amazingly close proximity to a league position that would have given us an opportunity to defer failure for a couple of weeks coupled with the astonishing avoidance of relegation. Princes Park will be rocking on Saturday.

[MINTY]

Well another season all but done and dusted. The board will be happy now that they don't have to increase the budget because of promotion. Perhaps we can try again next season and see if we can be also rans again. A new manager probably coming in, will have his hands tied behind his back with the budget restraints until new blood is introduced at Board level. This Board has let Dartford stagnate and Dartford has now fallen way down the pecking order in Kent. Perhaps the Board are happy to just bounce around the Isthmian league, I'm sure the fans are not. They are the lifeblood of this club and they will vote with their feet, as many already have.

[Paulcanary]

Well another season all but done and dusted. The board will be happy now that they don't have to increase the budget because of promotion. Perhaps we can try again next season and see if we can be also rans again. A new manager probably coming in, will have his hands tied behind his back with the budget restraints until new blood is introduced at Board level. This Board has let Dartford stagnate and Dartford has now fallen way down the pecking order in Kent. Perhaps the Board are happy to just bounce around the Isthmian league, I'm sure the fans are not. They are the lifeblood of this club and they will vote with their feet, as many already have.

Spot on - I’ve heard of fans who have decided enough is enough now so…..all very sad

[Bagdhad Billy]

The big elephant in the room regarding budget is that we still pay TB as one of only 2 full time employees at the club which takes a massive chunk of budget away from management recruitment (Ady we could only afford to pay part time) and player budget.

When we were in the national they made TB a full time employee of the club which made sense in that situation. If I remember rightly back then we were paying him 50k a year to manage the club, if he is still on that or there abouts that’s a hell of a lot of money we aren’t using on the squad or management team.

The reason TB is still a full time employee is in my eyes another reminder of the “boys club” mentality within the board bcus nobody would ever tell there mate in the boys club he needs to lose his salary when he came away from the 1st team management.

Might be wrong but with how the club has been run over the past 10 years It still feels like a boys club mentality and everyone is just too nice to each other at board level.

[MINTY]

The big elephant in the room regarding budget is that we still pay TB as one of only 2 full time employees at the club which takes a massive chunk of budget away from management recruitment (Ady we could only afford to pay part time) and player budget.

When we were in the national they made TB a full time employee of the club which made sense in that situation. If I remember rightly back then we were paying him 50k a year to manage the club, if he is still on that or there abouts that’s a hell of a lot of money we aren’t using on the squad or management team.

The reason TB is still a full time employee is in my eyes another reminder of the “boys club” mentality within the board bcus nobody would ever tell there mate in the boys club he needs to lose his salary when he came away from the 1st team management.

Might be wrong but with how the club has been run over the past 10 years It still feels like a boys club mentality and everyone is just too nice to each other at board level.

I heard he was on more than that.

[Undercover Elephant]

The big elephant in the room regarding budget is that we still pay TB as one of only 2 full time employees at the club which takes a massive chunk of budget away from management recruitment (Ady we could only afford to pay part time) and player budget.

When we were in the national they made TB a full time employee of the club which made sense in that situation. If I remember rightly back then we were paying him 50k a year to manage the club, if he is still on that or there abouts that’s a hell of a lot of money we aren’t using on the squad or management team.

The reason TB is still a full time employee is in my eyes another reminder of the “boys club” mentality within the board bcus nobody would ever tell there mate in the boys club he needs to lose his salary when he came away from the 1st team management.

Might be wrong but with how the club has been run over the past 10 years It still feels like a boys club mentality and everyone is just too nice to each other at board level.

I think you may find that TB is paid via the academy side of the football club and not directly effecting the playing side of the budget, you may want to confirm this with the club.

[Odd-ball]

The big elephant in the room regarding budget is that we still pay TB as one of only 2 full time employees at the club which takes a massive chunk of budget away from management recruitment (Ady we could only afford to pay part time) and player budget.

When we were in the national they made TB a full time employee of the club which made sense in that situation. If I remember rightly back then we were paying him 50k a year to manage the club, if he is still on that or there abouts that’s a hell of a lot of money we aren’t using on the squad or management team.

The reason TB is still a full time employee is in my eyes another reminder of the “boys club” mentality within the board bcus nobody would ever tell there mate in the boys club he needs to lose his salary when he came away from the 1st team management.

Might be wrong but with how the club has been run over the past 10 years It still feels like a boys club mentality and everyone is just too nice to each other at board level.

I think you may find that TB is paid via the academy side of the football club and not directly effecting the playing side of the budget, you may want to confirm this with the club.

Talking of the academy....I heard because the men's have not been promoted the 2 year limit is now over and the academy will be relegated aswell !

[Dart of Herts]

I’ve said before but I don’t believe this trope that the board are happy staying in this league. Making up a five year plan just to hide what they really want? Give it a rest.

If they really do want to take the men’s team full time, that requires saving on the playing budget for several seasons so they can actually transition properly.

Don’t get me wrong: small budget or not, this season has been a failure. But I won’t be surprised to see Ade in the dugout next season. I have a feeling that the board thinks he’s our guy to lead the transition to full-time if/when it happens. Could be wrong though

[rambo]

I’ve said before but I don’t believe this trope that the board are happy staying in this league. Making up a five year plan just to hide what they really want? Give it a rest.

If they really do want to take the men’s team full time, that requires saving on the playing budget for several seasons so they can actually transition properly.

Don’t get me wrong: small budget or not, this season has been a failure. But I won’t be surprised to see Ade in the dugout next season. I have a feeling that the board thinks he’s our guy to lead the transition to full-time if/when it happens. Could be wrong though

With all respect this doesn’t really make sense. If we save on the playing budget for several seasons the squad will inevitably be weaker than if we had not saved on the budget over several seasons. So when we have saved enough and the squad is weak , we go full time. Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

We should be renamed the Drifters as we are drifting into nowhere land.

I am very sad and fear I will never see happy times at PP again.

[JCJ]

I really thought we would make the play-offs before Saturdays game, I thought Brentwood would slip up Saturday not us. How wrong was I,
I feel also nothing from the club since Saturday sends the wrong signals out to supporters, After the Canvey Chatham and # wins, we got an interview the same night as the day of the game but after this draw we get nothing, does it mean Pennock has been given his marching order's or even has he gone of his own accord?
Not sure a change of Manager will help unless we up the budget, Then if they do who is out there that will come here and has the contacts a certain manager did a few seasons ago (I feel that was the start of the decline) and he will be in this league next year with Eastbourne.

Mistakes this season in my opinion are

Poor Signings at the start of the season (Eze and Frempah to name two)

Poor Choice of Captains ( At the start of the season Samir would have been my choice or maybe Tennent after he arrived)

Eddie Dsane not playing as much even though I do think he done better coming off the bench in games then when he started them but there were some games he was not given much time at all.

Poor discipline at the start of the season how many players did we get sent off it seemed like a weekly occurrence,

Poor tactics especially when we sat back defending a winning situation, how many points did we drop from a winning situation.

The youth situation why oh why would you stop the youth coming to games, it just lead to a poor atmosphere at games and I'm sure the players noticed it and this is the future of the football club.


Not a mistake but think it had an effect on our season was the injury to Samir, unfortunate but we did not replace him to be honest.
If true what I have heard not using the budget to its full capacity , I believe Ramsgate sacked Lee Martin because of this reason

I feel the board need to make a decision quickly either Back Pennock or sack him, if your going to Back him give him the backing financially to complete at this level at the top end, if the board cannot do this then let someone who can in. If your going to sack him then do it and employ a new manager with the contacts and the know how to be successful at this level and above and do it quickly just remember Folkestone started to look forward at the end part of last season and look how it ended for them.

[Dart of Herts]

I’ve said before but I don’t believe this trope that the board are happy staying in this league. Making up a five year plan just to hide what they really want? Give it a rest.

If they really do want to take the men’s team full time, that requires saving on the playing budget for several seasons so they can actually transition properly.

Don’t get me wrong: small budget or not, this season has been a failure. But I won’t be surprised to see Ade in the dugout next season. I have a feeling that the board thinks he’s our guy to lead the transition to full-time if/when it happens. Could be wrong though

With all respect this doesn’t really make sense. If we save on the playing budget for several seasons the squad will inevitably be weaker than if we had not saved on the budget over several seasons. So when we have saved enough and the squad is weak , we go full time. Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

We should be renamed the Drifters as we are drifting into nowhere land.

I am very sad and fear I will never see happy times at PP again.

That’s assuming that every part-time player is ready to go pro/wants to leave their day job. Transitioning to full-time will likely involve rebuilding the squad anyway

[Lars Resort]

With respect jcj, I think we all knew a revolution was taking place at Folkestone and it started with Saunders leaving Tonbridge.
Plus they dug up the field they used to play on and had a money man to back it all up.
Which I also hasten to add that doesn't always work. Take Eastbourne for example and the mess they are in backed up by relegation.
It's a fine line to cross which doesn't often work.
But having said that Saunder's was the winner regarding Folkestone and probably a lot of people knew they were the one's to beat long before the season started.
In the NLP yesterday there was a good article on the manager leaving Bedford Town and the amount of money now needed to keep a part time club (such as ourselves) up in the National League N/S.
Have to laugh at the sacking of Lee Martin at Ramsgate for under spending from his budget.

[Babylon]

To me,we don't seem to be progressing in any way or form.
The powers that be seem quite happy to plod along as an above average team in this Ryman league.
Pennock has made mistakes but just like our previous manager's he has done his best with the budget he has been given.
WE NEED INVESTMENT otherwise next season will be a repeat of this one.
Good facilities, great stadium for this level,
Good fan base but an above average team which is not going to get us back to the Connie south.

For the last 10 years I have bought a season ticket but like a lot of other regular fans I am seriously
Thinking about not bothering to get one for the next campaign