The Dart(s) Board

BRASSNECK wrote: Mon Aug 25, 2025 5:11 pm

The 5th Searcher wrote: Mon Aug 25, 2025 5:04 pm Fantastic come back to get a draw, well done Darts and especially Eddie.

What sort of crowd did they have down there, hopefully quite a few Darts fans.

Thanks for the updates as normal Parky.

We had a crazy result at Ramsgate back in the Kent league days I think we won 5 -4 with a late Gary Julian’s goal.

Good memory. We won 5-4 on 13/11/1993 in the Kent League!

Just checked Princes Among Men and we were 3-1 up in that game. Went 3-4 down, then came back to win.

Haven't seen a game like that for a good many years. We hadn't touched the ball and we were a goal down. Getting back into it quickly was a good sign and for a while in the first half I thought we were the better team. But then they scored twice before half time and the second half Smithy hit the destruct button and deserved the sending off.
Got it back to 3-2 two then Okoye got sent off in an incident I didn't see. Then Eddie got his second before they themselves had a guy sent off.
Eddie then scored his screamer before they went ahead again. We got the penalty which Eddie scored from and we deserved another soon after which the ref bottled.
Entertaining it may have been but we definately have a discipline problem. But we fought for that point Dan Smith fitted nicely in at the back and Callum chased everything toward the end. But Eddie showed how to score and you have to wonder why he isn't starting games.
Eddie all day long for MOTM. But they were faster to the ball in the game.
What a shit pitch.

Wow.

In the end, given the way that panned out a good result for us. It doesn't excuse the lack of discipline we seem to have, but at 3-1, I'd written us off so I'm a happy bunny now. And a 4-4 draw is always a bit special, especially when we get the last goal!

Fantastic effort to get a draw!
Let’s not let it distract from the shambolic defending again though.
Second time in 5 games we have conceded 4 away from home, discipline also a massive issue again.
Henly is a massive downgrade on marsden and we are also massively lacking a leader at the back.
With Micheal injured and both Sam’s now banned for the next league game I think we need to get a loan in at the very least.
No news on Macleod either, not sure we can afford a season of having him and Samir sharing the treatment table.
Can’t fault the commitment but so much to improve on going forward.

Disco Stu wrote: Mon Aug 25, 2025 6:03 pm

BRASSNECK wrote: Mon Aug 25, 2025 5:11 pm

The 5th Searcher wrote: Mon Aug 25, 2025 5:04 pm Fantastic come back to get a draw, well done Darts and especially Eddie.

What sort of crowd did they have down there, hopefully quite a few Darts fans.

Thanks for the updates as normal Parky.

We had a crazy result at Ramsgate back in the Kent league days I think we won 5 -4 with a late Gary Julian’s goal.

Good memory. We won 5-4 on 13/11/1993 in the Kent League!

Just checked Princes Among Men and we were 3-1 up in that game. Went 3-4 down, then came back to win.

Sounds like it could have been a repeat shoreline of that bonkers match if the ref hadn’t bottled the late penalty decision?

Haven’t seen a Mark Sweet post since we came back into the game or did I miss one???

Well where do you start on a match like that as i can't recall watching anything like it before.

But in all honesty we didn't play well and Ady has quite a few things to sort out, mainly the lack of leadership and organisation on the pitch.
We know we are a young side with bags of potential and they will all get better which is encouraging, but they are still learning their trade and consequently performances will not be consistent which imo is where we are at the moment.
Having said that you have to say a massive well done to the players for keeping going and somehow managing to get a draw, which could and should have been a win had the ref not bottled it.

Not sure i think we have a "discipline" problem as such as to me that suggests we are a dirty side, which imo couldn't be anything further from the truth. I think we are too nice and need to toughen up and the sending offs have been mainly through errors and decision making.

I don't think I'll be the only to say that i thought the ref was poor today. I didn't think we got many of the 50/50's but i suppose you can argue those all day long, however two massive decisions which i think he got completely wrong and i hope their are some match highlights to check.
First of all was the Okoye red card - he went on a decent run and then just pushed the ball too far and stretched to reach it but getting their first and winning the ball. Ref came over and showed the red card and everyone around me thought he had sent their guy off, but to our amazement he'd sent Okoye off. May be wrong but virtually everyone around me thought the same??
Second was the penalty appeal in the last few minutes - it was a long ball up and Eddie got goal side of their last man and was in the penalty area about to shoot. Their guy then just clatters into the back of him nowhere near the ball and the ref waved play on. IMO he completely bottled it as it was so late on and it would have been another red and a pen. Two decisions i'm still scratching my head on.

Can't sugar coat it though as we have plenty to improve on and not sure what Ady does next week especially defensively, but you have to think Eddie should come into the side as like i said last week, goals change games and imo if he played regularly he would get 20+ goals a season. If i'm right he got 24 goals for relegated Kingstonian the season before he signed for us!!

Decent crowd today and i would estimate a healthy 300-400 Darts fans there. I do feel though that Ramsgate have a few things to improve on when staging a game like this. If you go up a few divisions it's likely there will be bigger away followings so some pre match info on their website wouldn't go amiss and to be brutally honest, their stewards should treat both sets of supporters the same!!!!

MOTM has to be Eddie, without him we'd have lost.

Kermo18 wrote: Mon Aug 25, 2025 7:41 pm Fantastic effort to get a draw!
Let’s not let it distract from the shambolic defending again though.
Second time in 5 games we have conceded 4 away from home, discipline also a massive issue again.
Henly is a massive downgrade on marsden and we are also massively lacking a leader at the back.
With Micheal injured and both Sam’s now banned for the next league game I think we need to get a loan in at the very least.
No news on Macleod either, not sure we can afford a season of having him and Samir sharing the treatment table.
Can’t fault the commitment but so much to improve on going forward.

Disagree Re Henly, whilst he hasn’t had a great start to life at Dartford, Marsden is playing for Concord rangers for a reason

WillDfc42 wrote: Mon Aug 25, 2025 8:23 pm

Kermo18 wrote: Mon Aug 25, 2025 7:41 pm Fantastic effort to get a draw!
Let’s not let it distract from the shambolic defending again though.
Second time in 5 games we have conceded 4 away from home, discipline also a massive issue again.
Henly is a massive downgrade on marsden and we are also massively lacking a leader at the back.
With Micheal injured and both Sam’s now banned for the next league game I think we need to get a loan in at the very least.
No news on Macleod either, not sure we can afford a season of having him and Samir sharing the treatment table.
Can’t fault the commitment but so much to improve on going forward.

Disagree Re Henly, whilst he hasn’t had a great start to life at Dartford, Marsden is playing for Concord rangers for a reason

Agree 100% WillDfc42, Henly's not exactly had a settled organised defence in front of him, or 10 players for that matter!!

Not sure if I’d call Henly a downgrade from Marsden but he certainly doesn’t fill me with any confidence from the games I’ve seen him including pre season. I do think he will cost us points and at the moment the red cards are only taking attention away from him. Wasn’t there today but following it whilst at VCD-Erith was traumatic lol glad we managed to get the draw which shows some fighting spirit and sounds as though most are disappointed we didn’t get the chance to potentially have a pen for a winner

He may not be a downgrade but I wouldn’t call him an upgrade either. We’ve shipped a ton of goals already this season and he’s been at fault for a few.
Maybe a more settled defence would help but I’m still not sure he’s much of an improvement.

Park Life wrote: Mon Aug 25, 2025 8:19 pm Well where do you start on a match like that as i can't recall watching anything like it before.

But in all honesty we didn't play well and Ady has quite a few things to sort out, mainly the lack of leadership and organisation on the pitch.
We know we are a young side with bags of potential and they will all get better which is encouraging, but they are still learning their trade and consequently performances will not be consistent which imo is where we are at the moment.
Having said that you have to say a massive well done to the players for keeping going and somehow managing to get a draw, which could and should have been a win had the ref not bottled it.

Not sure i think we have a "discipline" problem as such as to me that suggests we are a dirty side, which imo couldn't be anything further from the truth. I think we are too nice and need to toughen up and the sending offs have been mainly through errors and decision making.

I don't think I'll be the only to say that i thought the ref was poor today. I didn't think we got many of the 50/50's but i suppose you can argue those all day long, however two massive decisions which i think he got completely wrong and i hope their are some match highlights to check.
First of all was the Okoye red card - he went on a decent run and then just pushed the ball too far and stretched to reach it but getting their first and winning the ball. Ref came over and showed the red card and everyone around me thought he had sent their guy off, but to our amazement he'd sent Okoye off. May be wrong but virtually everyone around me thought the same??
Second was the penalty appeal in the last few minutes - it was a long ball up and Eddie got goal side of their last man and was in the penalty area about to shoot. Their guy then just clatters into the back of him nowhere near the ball and the ref waved play on. IMO he completely bottled it as it was so late on and it would have been another red and a pen. Two decisions i'm still scratching my head on.

Can't sugar coat it though as we have plenty to improve on and not sure what Ady does next week especially defensively, but you have think Eddie should come into the side as like i said last week, goals change games and imo if he played regularly he would get 20+ goals a season. If i'm right he got 24 goals for relegated Kingstonian the season before he signed for us!!

Decent crowd today and i would estimate a healthy 300-400 Darts fans there. I do feel though that Ramsgate have a few things to improve on when staging a game like this. If you go up a few divisions it's likely there will be bigger away followings so some pre match info on their website wouldn't go amiss and to be brutally honest, their stewards should treat both sets of supporters the same!!!!

MOTM has to be Eddie, without him we'd have lost.

Agree the stewarding wasn’t amazing but also don’t think the “youth” did themselves any favours either.
They’ve caused issues on more than a few occasions this season already.

Ramsgate as a club is a shambles. How they achieved the grading is beyond me. The car park, as vast as it was was NOT marshalled at all and was just chaotic to get out of. No wheelchair access to the bar. Nice friendly staff but just an absolute shit hole and another on my list of never ever to revisit.

As for the game. We got away with one. We were shit. Nothing else. Thanks Eddie. You saved us.

Changes need to be made. No leader. Don’t blame Jonny, he’s the last line of a woeful defence. What can he do??

Discipline. Sort it. Referee’s union is ‘on to us’.

Kermo18 wrote: Mon Aug 25, 2025 9:15 pm

Park Life wrote: Mon Aug 25, 2025 8:19 pm Well where do you start on a match like that as i can't recall watching anything like it before.

But in all honesty we didn't play well and Ady has quite a few things to sort out, mainly the lack of leadership and organisation on the pitch.
We know we are a young side with bags of potential and they will all get better which is encouraging, but they are still learning their trade and consequently performances will not be consistent which imo is where we are at the moment.
Having said that you have to say a massive well done to the players for keeping going and somehow managing to get a draw, which could and should have been a win had the ref not bottled it.

Not sure i think we have a "discipline" problem as such as to me that suggests we are a dirty side, which imo couldn't be anything further from the truth. I think we are too nice and need to toughen up and the sending offs have been mainly through errors and decision making.

I don't think I'll be the only to say that i thought the ref was poor today. I didn't think we got many of the 50/50's but i suppose you can argue those all day long, however two massive decisions which i think he got completely wrong and i hope their are some match highlights to check.
First of all was the Okoye red card - he went on a decent run and then just pushed the ball too far and stretched to reach it but getting their first and winning the ball. Ref came over and showed the red card and everyone around me thought he had sent their guy off, but to our amazement he'd sent Okoye off. May be wrong but virtually everyone around me thought the same??
Second was the penalty appeal in the last few minutes - it was a long ball up and Eddie got goal side of their last man and was in the penalty area about to shoot. Their guy then just clatters into the back of him nowhere near the ball and the ref waved play on. IMO he completely bottled it as it was so late on and it would have been another red and a pen. Two decisions i'm still scratching my head on.

Can't sugar coat it though as we have plenty to improve on and not sure what Ady does next week especially defensively, but you have think Eddie should come into the side as like i said last week, goals change games and imo if he played regularly he would get 20+ goals a season. If i'm right he got 24 goals for relegated Kingstonian the season before he signed for us!!

Decent crowd today and i would estimate a healthy 300-400 Darts fans there. I do feel though that Ramsgate have a few things to improve on when staging a game like this. If you go up a few divisions it's likely there will be bigger away followings so some pre match info on their website wouldn't go amiss and to be brutally honest, their stewards should treat both sets of supporters the same!!!!

MOTM has to be Eddie, without him we'd have lost.

Agree the stewarding wasn’t amazing but also don’t think the “youth” did themselves any favours either.
They’ve caused issues on more than a few occasions this season already.

Maybe but you can't have rules for one set of fans and completely ignore the home fans behaviour.
When their early goal went in the goading and incitement from some of the home fans was unnecessary, embarrassing and set the tone of the day. The stewards witnessed it and did nothing then were quite happy to set a different standard to the away fans. One of their "fans" (a middle aged guy with his family and young kids!!) not only started the incitement but then dropped his shorts and mooned everyone and was spoken to 2-3 times but no action taken. Just saying that whoever misbehaves needs to be dealt with and don't like to criticise the stewards as it's a difficult job, but like ours, they didn't exactly cover themselves in glory today.

Agree with Sleightly, didn't enjoy my visit to Ramsgate as it's one of those grounds that it's difficult to get a good view from the terraces.

Where to start?

Sh*t ref.
Sh*t pitch.
Sh*t performance.
Bucket loads of guts and determination.

Once again we failed to come out of the blocks for the first half of a match. In the first thirty minutes I believe that we only crossed the half-way line twice with controlled possession. Opponents know our record of cards this season and clearly play the ref and the match with a view to getting another Dartford player sent off. They fall as if shot under the slightest of challenges and sadly, refs at this level tend to assume that a foul must have been committed. Their number seven played a blinder in the sending off of Sam Smith. It was not a great challenge, but he went down as if hit by Mike Tyson (sorry, showing my age).

The second red card must go down as one of the most controversial decisions in years. Dartford fans were angry with the challenge on Sam Okoye, but felt that a red card was a little harsh. When it became apparent that Sam had been sent off and not the player who fouled him and was staying on the ground as an attempted mitigent we had entered the realms of Panto season. Unbelievable.

But the ref had not finished there. I believe that he finally made a red card decision correctly, a shocking studs first challenge by a Ramsgate player. But then, in the dying moments two very contentious decisions. Eddie was fouled having robbed the defender of the ball before shooting into the net. It was the last defender and a clear goal scoring opportunity. The ref decided that this was not worthy of a red card. He did not even speak to the defender. During the arguements that followed. the bollard in the Ramsgate defence barged Eddie who was standing by the penalthy spot and moved the ball that Eddie had already placed. He then began barracking Eddie. Again, no action from the ref.

Almost the last action of the game was a very long kick from our keeper that Ramsgate failed to manage again. It bounced through to Eddioe who was clattered from behind as he lined up to shoot. The ref waved play-on. Quelle surprise.

Whilst pleased with the way that we battled back against all the odds, I left the ground feeling that this was two points dropped. Ramsgate were poor at the back. They could not handle high balls into the box. They were leading this match and had a two player advantage on the pitch, but still failed to win.

My main take-away from the match today however, is that if Dartford ever install a pitch like that at Princes Park, I will give up watching them. What a dreadful surface to try to play football on.

Grassbank wrote: Mon Aug 25, 2025 11:14 pm

My main take-away from the match today however, is that if Dartford ever install a pitch like that at Princes Park, I will give up watching them. What a dreadful surface to try to play football on.

GB has a point. And one that doesn’t get much ‘air time’. If DFC do go down the sorry road of this plastic pitch shit, yup, I’m gone too. I only went today because it was a new ground. I don’t go anywhere where a serious level of football is played on this shit. Even if it’s to the detriment of ‘MY’ team playing away. It’s not football. f*ck off with your cash-grabbing ridiculousness.

I for one thought that Ramsgate had also had a player sent off in the Okoye incident. The pitch was awful and looked a heavy surface. When the ball was headed away it hardly looked as if it was going out of play and at one point just rolled to a standstill.
It was one game where you had to wonder what was going to happen next.
The ref lost it in the end. The stewards lost it too, there was one guy who agitated our lot behind me, a fine example of fatherhood as his son (presumably) stood grinning like a Cheshire cat next to him.
One place I will not be back to in a hurry.

Ramsgate's defence was poor, what a shame we couldn't take advantage of that. Our attack wasn't exactly ticking and we failed to put them under any pressure up until Eddie.

Looking forward to the highlight package, but expecting much of the controversy to be edited out. I wager that we do not see the challenge on Eddie towards the end of the match that should have seen the award of a second penalty to Dartford. Not sure they will be able to gloss over the second red card though when Sam was trying to run past three of their players en route to goal.

I also doubt that they will show the activity around the penalty spot during the 'gamesmanship' employed by Ramsgate to delay the taking of the penalty. I believe that it was not only the keeper that should have received a yellow card.