No update in terms of injured players from Marc in the weekly update today. JNW limped off at the end of St Albans last week so wouldn't surprise me if he misses out tomorrow.

Bath City 1-2 Dorking (Rutherford, Carter)

1,612 att.

                       Foulkes

             Camp   Craig   Milsom

Briggs       Taylor        Williams     Muitt

                        Carter

                 Prior     Rutherford

Subs: Francomb, Pybus, McManus, Young, Murphy

Bath City (1) 2 Dorking W (1) 3 Carter, Rutherford, Craig

1,701 (205 Wands)

Listened to that and it sounded a familiar story - not able to hold on to a narrow lead, despite the time wasting.  Interested to hear what people made of the sending off: silly of Taylor to risk it but would ref have booked him after ten minutes for passing the ball to another player??

Everyone else winning more or less so looks like play offs now. But possibly not away at Truro ! 

Ref was unbelievably bad. Bath wasted an incredible amount of time first half, every free kick, goal kick etc took 30 secs to a minute, loads of stoppages etc, ref only added on 1 minute

Second half we sorted ourselves out, got the lead were doing alright then the red card.

To be honest I thought Marc would've subbed Josh Taylor at half time (and said so at the time) as Bath were trying to get him sent off

Absolute chaos for at least 5 minutes for the red card, huge amount of time added, then the familiar late punch in the guts, as per St Albans, Hampton etc

We still actually haven't lost an away game this year, think Slough was the last away league defeat

Play offs is the most likely, but impossible to predict as places change literally every game

On the Good Friday at home, and a new temporary stand in place along the dugouts side for the eagle eyed.

@dorking-eagle Spot on David. They were timewasting from the first minute - and not a yellow (or time added on) in sight. Absolute joke.

I was reading observations online from Bath fans after the game and many were saying Dorking players were time wasting, rolling around feigning injury etc. Not the first time I’ve seen opposition fans say that this season. It’s not something I’ve really noticed us doing to be honest. I know people like the hate on Dorking, maybe just a vocal online minority 

First half that was Bath doing that, dubious injuries, doing up laces, every tackle we made they pretended was a foul so they could get a (slow to take) free kick.

Bath only speeded up once we had taken the lead. 

Only time I genuinely noticed us do it was the usual mysterious injury to Foulkes so that the team could go over to bench to reorganise.

When Camp went down and needed treatment it was a genuine nose bleed by the looks as he had tissue stuck up his nostril for ages afterwards (until a Bath player pulled it out while waiting for a corner)

Regardless of the scoreline at any particular time, as a fan I just wanted to watch some football and the ref failed to move things along and get any sort of flow.

Were Dorking silky and impressive - no. But there was an incredible high bounce and quite a lot of bobbles on that pitch. It was no easier to play than on Hornchurch or Welling's. 

Did we see the game out - no, and that is a concern - I know there was a huge amount of time added but every oppo manager will prep there team that we regularly concede late so never give up.

Would it have been a different game if Alfie had scored after about 3 mins when he smashed the bar? Impossible to say but it would have settled us down and we might have got a rhythm, rather than had any sort of rhythm constantly broken up first half by Bath constantly stopping the game at every opportunity (and the ref not getting it moving)

Posted by: @baggy

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Listened to that and it sounded a familiar story - not able to hold on to a narrow lead, despite the time wasting.  Interested to hear what people made of the sending off: silly of Taylor to risk it but would ref have booked him after ten minutes for passing the ball to another player??

Everyone else winning more or less so looks like play offs now. But possibly not away at Truro ! 

Need top 4 to draw on Friday. Otherwise can't see us finishing in top 3, and probably have to be away in semi if get there 

Posted by: @crawleysth

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Need top 4 to draw on Friday. Otherwise can't see us finishing in top 3, and probably have to be away in semi if get there 

3rd would still be something as it stands with the daft points dropped lately. 

Assuming 1st is probably out of the question, ideally we need Truro to win the league, as I can't see any team travelling down to deepest Cornwall for 6 hours and getting a result, especially not if they've played a midweek game before as well. 

Considering that Truro still have to play Torquay and Weston and that Eastbourne have to play Worthing and Weston and Worthing have ourselves and Eastbourne, the title is still on due to our better goal difference. We obviously need to win all 3 and need some snookers though as we could do will all those matches being draws except ours. That being said, finishing top 3 should definitely be the focus now.

In terms of the game on Saturday, I'm not sure the red made too much of a difference to the result if I am honest. A draw was probably just about fair and if we conceded a last minute equaliser last week with 11 men against St Albans then I don't think it made much difference having 10 men for that corner this week. I do think if Alfie scores that early chance then we probably go on to win comfortably though.

Some stats from the game:

Possession: Bath 51% - 49% Dorking - The only time this season where we've had less possession and won less duels (49%)

xG: Bath 1.66 - 2.19 Dorking

Shots (On Target): Bath 8 (3) - Dorking 12 (5)

Top Performer: Jimmy Muitt [7.8]

Having seen the BoA take on the sending off, it was clearly ridiculous. But may not have been decisive, as you say @TomCalvert. 

The bigger issue is around the tactics of going ahead and trying to hold on rather than bury teams.  It has worked in several away games, but out of 13 drawn games, we have been ahead in 11, and the other two were goalless.  That suggests we are not that great at holding on to a narrow lead, especially in the last 10 minutes.  With a pretty fit squad I think the better tactic is to go out and get the second and third goals, as per Chesham, Chippenham and Hemel. 

I am not a fan of the “game management” that most teams do when ahead. It’s up to refs to sort that out though, but not by sending off Josh Taylor!