Can’t wait for the new season to start 🐔 ⚽️ and feeling optimistic for the season … tough opener though 🤔 

There all hard games but I'm sure we'll hold our own 🔴⚪️🔴⚪️

As long as we're on 4pts after 3 games (I'm thinking Maidenhead at home a draw and Southend at home a win), then no need to panic at all. We'll be fine a year older and wiser in this league! 👍 

That would be a good return after 3 games and any more a bonus 

Completely agree that we can take last years experience and be wiser this year, and if we keep a good squad depth and minimal injures that will also be a big help 👍 

A few early clean sheets for Harrison will also be a boost 🧤 

Also, Wrexham and Notts County were 2 exceptional NL teams so not having them will help 😃 

Man of the match poll added to this thread

@dorking-eagle any news on the performance please.

Fair play to all you guys who travelled to Chesterfield today … 👏👏👏 

I was listing to the online commentary … we seem to have played well and gave it everything 🐔 

It’d be good to hear from anyone who was there too … Harrison Male had a good one? 🧤🧤

I’m buzzing for first home game 

Was following this on BBC text from a bar in Lisbon- sounds a bonkers game! An away win during happy hour could have got very messy. 😀. 

Good to hear from those who went about the performance- and the sending off 

Played well, much better than I expected. Despite the 4 goals, Male was very good, made 2 top saves in 1st half. Francombe I thought was poor before he went off very early, perhaps he shouldn't have started?

Ultimately Cook cost us getting something, daft 1st booking, couldn't put in any sort of tackle to stop their second because in a yellow, and the free kick from his 2nd yellow was what Chesterfield scored from. 

But lots of positives, not least we've still got goals in the team, and Bowerman and Fuller were both excellent.

After the pre-season grumblings and below par performances I thought we were decent yesterday. 

Was never going to be easy against the bookies league favourites at home, but I guess playing them first gets that out the way and allows you to have a free-hit at it. 

That said, it was gutting to not come away with a point. Male was superb - one point blank save in the first half was excellent and his handling/decision making on a slippy pitch was spot on. The injury to Francomb was a blow, as Deano said there were plans to manage minutes but best laid plans and all that when Cook came on, meaning only two other potential game changing subs were left. 

Cook didn't look up to speed at all. Flat footed against them and clearly they targetted this area, leading to a rash challenge for booking one, then a silly hold/through the back when too tight for the second (leading to the 3rd goal from the free-kick). Perhaps trying too hard against his former employers. 

Several key performances as mentioned - Male. Gallagher was good in the shielding role and covered a lot of ground when down to 10. Showed fight with some hefty challenges. Macca when on the ball, Briggs showing glimpses of what he's about in an attacking threat - admittedly he had to do a lot of defending! JP with a lot of good hold up, flicks and his first was a lovely finish. Fuller looking fit again and wearing the armband. 

Lots of positives. A week of training and rest and then back to back home games. Fans yesterday were brilliant as always, and I hope Dobra has managed to get back from Tesco car park that Cook put him into with that challenge 🙂 

As brilliant a job as Ross, Deano and Mick Daniels are doing, it just isn't the same without Matc in the ground. Marc IS Dorking Wanderers. The pre and post match interviews, the frank honesty, the random swearing, the funny but accurate observations we can all agree with.

Kinda makes me think of the Barry Manilow song 'Can't smile without you' 😁

Will be glad when the ground ban is over and we can get back to business as usual!

MoM for Harrison 🧤🧤👏👏 

Good start and hopefully a confidence booster for him too 👍 

Yep, 2 first half saves that were insanely good 👍 

Thanks @Jlamps for the report. Good to hear of the fine saves from Male.  Have now seen the TV highlights - the pundits were pinning the blame on Male for "diving backwards" for the free kick, which seemed a bit harsh.  The foul by Cook that led to it was a bit soft too - but clever from the forward no doubt.  I think Cook is usually very solid at the left of a back three, but doesn't offer as much as others yet going forward. So it was good to see Bobby Joe in the more advanced role. How did that work on the day?  Looked an encouraging performance overall.  

Would also be interested in thoughts from those at the game on the amount of injury time added. I see both Marc and JP were complaining about it.  For me, I am in favour in principle of adding time to deter all the time wasting we see so often - feigned injuries etc.  But refs need to be clear about what they are adding time on for and of course they all need to be consistent - time will tell.  I think this was flagged with clubs before the season started so it should not have come as a surprise.  I can see there may be an impact on players with longer games each week, but the extra time is when the ball is out of play, so it should not be adding on much to what they are used to in terms of actual playing time.  Let's see how it develops. In the meantime, at least the new rule provides a good excuse for getting home much later after the game 😀