Thanks Tom. That is a mad XG for Aveley! 

I was wondering about attendance too, as there was no announcement.  I reckon around 1200. 

And good to see Rob Milsom as top rated and MoM.  He has been totally brilliant all season. Some crucial tackles away at Hornchurch and his dead balls and crossing are all very high quality.  Can’t believe it has been so long since last pen, but this one - I thought defender took ball first, both live and seeing replay. But as you say, we are owed one. 

Not seen the attendance yet. If I had to guess, about 1000 - 1100?

Didn't even look like a 1000 there. Easily the lowest crowd of the season

I thought just over a 1000, seemed really quiet although atmosphere was great 

I know we have brilliant fans, sponsors and shareholders but really can't see how the club operates with the squad budget we have, full time training at an external training campus etc. Not digging out the fans, just saying this club badly needs this promotion and get back to where it was. 

@dorking-eagle You're quite right - we do need to get back up there - but - I don't think the players are paid as much as some might think.

Most, if not all, come to DWFC (and stay) because of MW, the style of football, BoA, a welcoming club that does things differently, and for the loanees of course the chance to play regular football in a positive, winning team. 

And of course there's an army of volunteers that goes right to the top, loads of hard work behind the scenes and plenty of local (and non local) backers.

There's also many clubs doing ok on our sort of attendances and 1,000 + on a very cold Tuesday night against hugely unattractive (all due respect to Aveley) opposition ain't bad!

Thanks for the positivity Ade. Marc said on Tuesday it's like pushing water uphill sometimes!

Nobody especially wants to have to go to Truro on a Tuesday night for a play-off QF, so lets hope the momentum continues like an unstoppable force!

The other thing to bear in mind is that the club has had to fork out a huge sum of money on legal fees etc in resolving the ground issue. Money which could have gone towards players and ground facilities.  Thankfully, that now seems to be just about resolved, or will be soon.  Then all attention can be on getting the whole club infrastructure up to NL standard and beyond. 
And good to hear @AdeB of players coming to DW for reasons other than money. Long may it continue! 

Yes I heard the figure and it's really disappointing the club has had to fork out all that just to be able to co-exist, could have paid for the roof on the West end of the ground or other improvements

Incidentally, if the relationship is now much improved with our hosts, can the stand we bought ages ago be erected?

Quite an interesting weekly update from Marc with quite a few comments criticising the attendance on Tuesday and pleading for bigger attendances going forward the rest of the season at home. Mentioned that Worthing are packing out their ground this season but they are averaging less than us so not sure I agree with that. Torquay and Maidstone will obviously have bigger attendances than us as they are historically bigger clubs and in bigger towns.

On the injury front, he mentioned Brooking is about 7-10 days away from a return while Camp is still a few weeks away. Mentioned Francomb is undergoing tests related to his diabetes so doesn't sound like we will seem him anytime soon. I do wonder if we will look at recalling Fuller for this period?

Rumour going round is the crowd was 967 against Aveley

Worthing got 1565 midweek. But then that was kind of a top of the table face-off.

I am concerned about the home attendances, but the main ways to grow them is either be more consistent at home (there's no lack of trying on that front) or do something about the pricing.

Against Aveley, not for the first time this season (we had a 'Wanderers non-league day' earlier this season) it was £10 for season ticket holders of OTHER clubs.

I get what the club are trying to do, but many floating' fans and groundhoppers who may be tempted along aren't season ticket holders at other clubs so for them it's £18.

And there is the argument, what about Dorking fans (who aren't season ticket holders), where is their offer? 

Could the club not have seen for example that there were 2 home games in a space of 5 days, and do a 'ticket bundle'? These have been short on the ground this season, there was one at the very start of the season, but not since IIRC. I think there may have been a home game for which local school discount vouchers were issued, but if you don't get those vouchers (I don't see them) that's not for everyone.

I'm not writing this to bash DWFC, but just to voice that there are things that could be done that aren't. The season goes on for months yet, it's still grey and cold, club needs to be more proactive, not just preaching to the converted.

@dorking-eagle Completely agree on the bundles, I remember there were lots of them the last time we were in the NLS but I never see them anymore. I do feel like they would make a big difference, especially on weeks like this when there are two home games in a week.

The other point is that performances need to improve at home. I appreciate that is a lot easier said than done but in our last NLS season, the reason attendances grew week on week was because we were battering teams. The big "daytrip" type games like Boxing Day and the 1000th game the other day are important because you can attract neutrals to return (thinking 8-0 Havant a few years ago) but we lost both of those this season which would have contributed to the drop this week...

@calvertskans Yea I agree Tom. I think it was just a bit of a war cry - but Worthing is also a much, much bigger town than Dorking. 

I think our attendances have actually held up better than expected, away numbers have often been tiny too, so to average what we do in Division 6 is pretty decent to put it mildly!

People also forget that we had less than a thousand for a game in our first NL season midweek against Maidstone. It just shows that these sorts of crowds can happen, even for bigger games and especially in the depths of the Winter.

As others have said, Aveley at home not a big draw for people and throw in other factors like cold weather, lots of games coming up and end of January (some people not been paid by that point) then this can happen. 967 is fairly respectable when there were only 40ish away fans.

Yes, the oppo won't have helped. At work people ask me all the time what game I am going to (I've always got a game coming up, be it Palace, Dorking or occasionally England) and when I said Aveley I was asked 'where's that?'. As in people had never heard of the place.

I didn't know of them until a couple of seasons ago when they went up to the NLS. 

Maidstone briefly was a football league club (albeit they are reincarnated) and Torquay were in the league for 80+ years, so those are an unfair comparison, and until we at least become established in the NL like Maidenhead or Solihull.