Dartford v Truro City Sat 20 Apr 2024

[Lars Resort]

A point!! Thought they did enough to sail away with the points.
Up until Rhys stole the show I thought Smitty was having a good game as well as Luke Coulson.
Nembhard and Nelson did well and when George got on the pitch he took no prisoners. Well impressed with him.
Oduado is getting to be injury prone, I know he's just come back into the team but he certainly looked it too.
Ade's got a job on in the retaining stakes because they all feel they are better than Isthmian standard. He has a job persuading them to stay should he want them.
I wasn't at the Easter Monday game so didn't get to vote but the outcome was about right.

[Fred OLness]

Surprised no one suggested keeping Nebhard.

[Lars Resort]

I agree with that Fred. Nembhard would be worth a look but he's probably one that feels he's too good for the Isthmian.
He's made a few howlers over the season as all of them. But feel he was one of the better Dowson signings.

[Tony H]

So much speculation!

[Dart of Herts]

Probably very unlikely and academic, and not sure we would deserve a reprieve at the expense of fans disappointments elsewhere, but if Truro or another club were thrown out, I wonder if the reprieve would go to the highest 4th from bottom in either league. In the NLN, that's likely to be a team currently with 50 points, ruling us out if it works that way.

I hadn’t thought of that but I think you’re right. The league rules say for steps 1-2 that when a team resigns BEFORE the end of a season then a team from the same division is reprieved, but if a team resigns AFTER the end of the season then no distinction is made in the rules, and it would seem the reprieve goes to the highest-ranked team in the level - not necessarily same division (I.e. north/south). So going by that, if Truro or another club went down, Blyth would be reprieved, not us.

Rules 5.5.2 and 5.5.3 on page 97
https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/file ... 057466.pdf

[M1 South]

So who did win player of the season may I ask??

[ozymandias]

Luke Coulson. With Paul Rooney runner up

[Dave T]

Surprised no one suggested keeping Nebhard.

I'm not Fred. I wouldn't bother with him even he were interested in staying, which l doubt. Likewise Miller-Rodney, Wall, Greenidge and Wynter, all of whom were massively disappointing in the second half of the season. Allen and Block are regrettably too injury prone so unless they prove their fitness before August, goodbye!

I can't see any of the loanees staying. Even if their parent clubs released some of them during the summer, l can't see any of them dropping down to the Isthmian League.

I'd like to see Luke Coulson stay. Head and shoulders the best footballer at the club. Rooney too, if he is committed and Barzey, though l think all three will have plenty of offers at NLS level, so l'd be very (pleasantly) suprised if any of them stay.

Smith. Maloney and Shomotun would all be OK, but hardly players to build a team around.

That leaves the youngsters, Box, Oduado, Whitefield and Wray and l hope they all stay.

One thing is for certain, there will not be many of the current squad around next year. Ady is going to have a very busy summer!

[DA Mikey]

Broadly agree with that retention list Dave. I read with interest on Rick’s site that Tommy Block made 17 starts this season, which is more than Alex Wall! I only remember seeing him a couple of times, can’t imagine he finished many of those games.
Luke Allen hasn’t worked out at Dartford IMO. Perhaps had he stayed off the treatment table more it might’ve been different, but he’s far too much of a nearly man for me.
We’ve been through so many players over the last three seasons - way in excess of 100 - and this beleaguered campaign especially there have only been a few remarkable ones. Appreciate that no team is completely comprised of superstars and flair, but we really have been mundane. Box, Coulson and Byrne have been excellent and totally worthy of keeping, sadly we definitely won’t get them all and may not get any. I reckon if we’d managed to keep hold of Samir Carruthers, we would have had a few more goals in us and a couple of results to have survived the drop.

Let’s hope we don’t hear too much of the B-word from Pennock in summer.

[Park Life]

We've had issues in several positions but i firmly believe if we'd had an experienced quality keeper all season we would have stayed up.
Someone like....... let me think. Oh yeah Dan Wilks
Another master stroke of player management by........

[Park Life]

[Sleightly Deceptive]

We've had issues in several positions but i firmly believe if we'd had an experienced quality keeper all season we would have stayed up.
Someone like....... let me think. Oh yeah Dan Wilks
Another master stroke of player management by........

I wonder if there’s a chance he might come back to us now The Clown has gone. He was superb and a nice lad. His dad would keep the bar takings up too!
But I don’t think it was solely the goalkeeping department that was to blame. In fact one or two displays, of late, actually did us good. IMHO, it was the absolute pants whose jobs it were to score. Re-signing Wall in the summer was bordering on fraud!

[Taunton Dart]

We've had issues in several positions but i firmly believe if we'd had an experienced quality keeper all season we would have stayed up.
Someone like....... let me think. Oh yeah Dan Wilks
Another master stroke of player management by........

On the keeper front - I think we would have been OK if Sandford had stayed

[Park Life]

We've had issues in several positions but i firmly believe if we'd had an experienced quality keeper all season we would have stayed up.
Someone like....... let me think. Oh yeah Dan Wilks
Another master stroke of player management by........

On the keeper front - I think we would have been OK if Sandford had stayed

Definitely, the only real decent keeper we had all season but unfortunately only played 9 games (8 League, 1 FAT).

[Spike]

So it's official, despite being an absolute crock of doodah all season, had we beaten just Eastbourne, that one win would have been enough to have avoided relegation. Such a small task and yet we couldn't manage even that. The squad assembled by Dowse was unbalanced, sub-standard, lacking in quality and commitment and devoid of talent. That, coupled with fitness levels that would have embarrassed Homer Simpson, it's a wonder we were not relegated by Christmas. Personally, my retention list would consist of Olly Box, Luke Coulson and Paul Rooney (assuming they are all willing to stay). Ronny Nelson would be great too, he is far and away the best of all the recent acquisitions, but he's not ours so that one is unlikely. There's a few bog average journeymen amongst the rest but most are sub-standard and the few who are not are perpetually "injured", sometimes even genuinely. I am frankly astonished that one or two people are suggesting Nembhard for retention. I guess we all see things differently but his generosity with the football would make him first out the door for me. I always try to put a positive spin on things but the season's over now so no need to talk things up. Mass exodus required.

Also, with Ady coming with a very different background to previous managers, I was hoping his contacts and associations would lead to fresh faces and new names we haven't previously heard of. Yet the rumours that were circulating on the terraces yesterday were underwhelming and suggest we are fishing in the same very small pool for fish we had already thrown back once before. It does worry me a little.

N.B. I exclude the academy lads from any of the above criticism as they've not only won their league by a country mile, they've all done a decent job whenever called upon for the first team.

[Nin]

do we have to pay extra for sound?

[rambo]

So it's official, despite being an absolute crock of doodah all season, had we beaten just Eastbourne, that one win would have been enough to have avoided relegation. Such a small task and yet we couldn't manage even that. The squad assembled by Dowse was unbalanced, sub-standard, lacking in quality and commitment and devoid of talent. That, coupled with fitness levels that would have embarrassed Homer Simpson, it's a wonder we were not relegated by Christmas. Personally, my retention list would consist of Olly Box, Luke Coulson and Paul Rooney (assuming they are all willing to stay). Ronny Nelson would be great too, he is far and away the best of all the recent acquisitions, but he's not ours so that one is unlikely. There's a few bog average journeymen amongst the rest but most are sub-standard and the few who are not are perpetually "injured", sometimes even genuinely. I am frankly astonished that one or two people are suggesting Nembhard for retention. I guess we all see things differently but his generosity with the football would make him first out the door for me. I always try to put a positive spin on things but the season's over now so no need to talk things up. Mass exodus required.

Also, with Ady coming with a very different background to previous managers, I was hoping his contacts and associations would lead to fresh faces and new names we haven't previously heard of. Yet the rumours that were circulating on the terraces yesterday were underwhelming and suggest we are fishing in the same very small pool for fish we had already thrown back once before. It does worry me a little.

N.B. I exclude the academy lads from any of the above criticism as they've not only won their league by a country mile, they've all done a decent job whenever called upon for the first team.

Spike I agree with most of what you say most of the time but on this occasion it’s a no
Coulson was dealt a bad hand by the clown in being made captain as he is no way captain material. However , he was the captain and on my view he is as culpable for our appalling season as the clown is. Coulson did not step up to the captains job and most of the time gave up and didn’t put in the required effort and certainly did not gee up the players and now has a relegation on his cv. He can go find another club as far as I am concerned.
It is possible that Rooney could make a mark in the isthmian league but it will be quick and frantic and tbh Rooney is a bit slow. I would like to see the back of him also.
I want Ade to sweep away the old and bring in a whole new squad that will play his way with an absolute minimum of this seasons squad

[Dicky Dart]

In my opinion the first player Pennock needs to sign is the Captain. Whoever that may be.

I understand why some wouldn’t want Coulson to stay - he’s not a leader. And I personally think he’s too one footed (always cuts in on his right). Nevertheless I’d be happy to keep him if he wants to stay. But we need a skipper. It all starts from the top and on the pitch that’s the captain.

Our pulling power is obviously reduced somewhat, but I’d say that a decent whack of our meagre budget needs to go on getting the right skipper. We can’t be rudderless.

[Ajaxman DFC]

Apart from Tom Bonner we've had no potential club legends playing for the club these past few years.
It's going to take more than next season to get back anything near to what we've lost.

[Spike]

Apart from Tom Bonner we've had no potential club legends playing for the club these past few years.
It's going to take more than next season to get back anything near to what we've lost.

Personally, I think Steve King brought in some of the highest quality players we've ever had at our club. Admittedly it never felt like a team, we never seemed to get the best out of them and of course, Kingy seemed to upset 90% of the people working behind the scenes, but in terms of quality these players were about as good as it gets at this level. That said, you always knew that these guys were just passing through, and in that sense you are right, they were never going to become "club legends".

But things can change very quickly in football. So much will depend on recruitment, that and being fit enough to last 90 minutes.