Dorking Wandering
The Dorking Wanderers FC Fans Forum
Our first Tuesday night game at Meadowbank since early November awaits tomorrow as we face an Aveley side currently sitting in 22nd place in the league. The Essex side are currently 10 points off safety, albeit with 2 games in hand on Welling, but did win last time on Saturday against Farnborough. The visitors were also 3-1 winners when we played them at Parkside back in September.
Not much update in terms of injury but I would expect the likes of Brooking, Camp and Norman to miss the game after the weekly update from Marc last week. Francomb was at Hornchurch on Saturday but did not make the bench so he might be in contention to come back in to the squad.
Predictions:
Dorking 4-1 Aveley (Carter x 2, Rutherford, Murphy)
1,391 att. (38 away)
Foulkes
Gallagher Craig Milsom
Briggs Williams McManus Muitt
Carter
Rutherford Murphy
Subs: Norville-Williams, J.Taylor, Pybus, Young, Prior
A very difficult XI to predict, mainly because of how many games we have coming up so I would surely expect to see some rotation to help us keep players fresh through this period.
Josh Taylor played 90 mins on Saturday and with him only just back from injury, it wouldn't surprise me to see him not feature from the start for this one. Williams and McManus only played 45 mins each on Saturday so I would expect them to both be fresh and start for this one.
The back 3 is pretty set at the moment unless Francomb is back from injury. Muitt played 90 mins on his return at the weekend so there is a chance he is rotated with JNW for this one as well. We also need to be careful with Prior and manage him properly over this period so wouldn't surprise me to see Murphy play the first 45-55 mins or so and rotate with JP later on. That being said, Marc very rarely rests Prior if he's not injured so he will probably still start.
Averages by club so far this season:
CLUB | AVG |
Torquay | 3,519 |
Maidstone | 2,231 |
Truro | 1,719 |
St Albans | 1,565 |
Worthing | 1,515 |
Dorking | 1,497 |
Bath City | 1,249 |
Eastbourne | 1,112 |
Farnborough | 1,055 |
Tonbridge | 1,030 |
Weston | 1,021 |
Weymouth | 946 |
Slough | 891 |
Enfield | 884 |
Chesham | 883 |
Salisbury | 866 |
Chelmsford | 831 |
Boreham Wood | 784 |
Hampton | 770 |
Hemel | 752 |
Chippenham | 751 |
Hornchurch | 690 |
Welling | 625 |
Aveley | 522 |
So currently 6th on the list and we've still got a few big away followings to come such as Torquay and Farnborough will probably bring decent numbers as well.
Truro's numbers are massively inflated by their new ground opening and the higher attendances at the start of the season like when we went there. Their last few games have been crowds of anywhere between 1000-1400 so they will likely be below us by the end of the season. I also wouldn't expect St Albans to stay above us if they continue to sit in the relegation places.
It also could be worse, we could be averaging below 800 like Boreham Wood...
St Albans the only big surprise near the top for me.
Farnborough and Bath should be getting a lot more IMO
"Why would I leave to join a League Two club? We're going there anyway!" - Marc White
They should. And Hornchurch and Aveley are lucky to have anyone there. 🫣
@dorking-eagle Agreed.
I think F'boro suffer from being a couple of miles from Aldershot (basically the same place really, they merge into one - wasn't there a rumour of a Rushmore FC many years ago or did I dream that?!)
Bath is a bit of a mystery - traditionally more a rugby town maybe - but with some success (have they ever had any?!) would pull in the big numbers I think
Bath finished in the play off spots above DW in 2019/20 (and DW beat them!!). Last in the Conference Premier in 2012.
They've never really pushed on. And now they've got rid of Jerry Gill, who was an absolute stalwart manager for them, I don't get that
They run on a shoestring, the club amassed a lot of debt over the years and is mostly supporter owned, so not a lot to spend
It's a huge ground compared to most in this league, and hosted EFL football (for Bristol Rovers) for a whole decade
Quite correct that Bath is a rugby city though
"Why would I leave to join a League Two club? We're going there anyway!" - Marc White