Dorking Wandering
The Dorking Wanderers FC Fans Forum
A break from league action as we face Eastbourne in the FA Trophy. They currently sit in 3rd place in the league with 3 wins from their last 5 although they did lose 3-0 away at Chippenham last time out on Saturday.
Hard to tell what kind of team Marc will go for but you would expect it would be a good opportunity to rest some of the more highly used players this season (Muitt, Craig, etc) and get some minutes in those than need them (Briggs, B.Taylor, Francomb, etc). I assume Josh Brooking will be available despite his red card at Slough as it takes 7 days for the suspension to kick in.
Not sure if Randall will be available for this but I imagine he will be otherwise there was not much point in Ebbsfleet loaning him out to us for this period.
Predictions:
Dorking 0-0 Eastbourne Borough (Eastbourne win on pens)
1,152 att.
Foulkes
Brooking Francomb Milsom
Briggs Gallagher Williams B.Taylor
Carter Young
Alexandrou
Subs: Camp, Craig, Norville-Williams, Myles, Randall, Rutherford, Rawlins
(Could also give one of Gallagher or Young a much needed rest and start Rutherford, Myles, Rawlins, etc instead)
Torquay away would have been a brilliant day out (or even weekend away)
You won't see an attendance for Saturday's game, it was a cup match!
"Why would I leave to join a League Two club? We're going there anyway!" - Marc White
Can’t have been much above 1000 looking around
Yeah, my guess would be 900-1000
"Why would I leave to join a League Two club? We're going there anyway!" - Marc White
Looks like the Brooking ban is 2 games. Should be back for Truro.
I'm glad people have mentioned the pitch, its something I've been debating in my own mind since we looked doomed last season!
As a lapsed palace fan a side traditionally involved in relegation scrap (when I was growing up), the years your luck runs out is when you don't win games at home against the other relegation candidates.
Last season are record at home against those teams was appalling, cant remember exactly (I might have to order the book)! Which lead me to believe the players, understandably in my opinion have lost faith in pitch, it's dangerous! They have seen to many serious injuries on it. I've never played top level sport but the need to give 100% is must, if there is a nagging doubt in the back of people minds will put you off the pace, it will cost you. I do wonder if those doubt are still there. Not sure what the realistic answer is to the problem?
Only a theory and could be complete nonsense, but it does nag at me!
I've been thinking exactly the same thing for several months now.
@epsomwanderer That will definitely play a part in it but it isn't just our plastic pitch that is the problem. We have lost every away game on plastic pitches this season except for one draw at Eastbourne - Aveley, Horsham, Tonbridge and Slough. We've also made hard work of every home game this season, not winning by more than 1 goal except for the Hornchurch game.
I think one of the biggest problems is just not having players who are used to the pitch. Foulkes, Camp, Brooking, Milsom, Norville-Williams, Young, Williams, Randall, Alexandrou and Murphy are all brand new to our pitch this season and a lot of the experienced players like Briggs, Josh Taylor, Bobby-Joe Taylor, Moore, McShane, Fuller, etc have been missing or not seen many minutes.
Harrison Foulkes is a perfect example of this problem as he looks an excellent keeper on grass this season with really good performances away at Truro, Weston, Farnborough, Chelmsford but at Meadowbank he looks a completely different player and his distribution in particular has been really impacted there. Our pitch just doesn't suit the type of football we look to play.
As we sign more and more "EFL type" players, we are getting less and less who are used to and effective on our pitch. Not sure what the solution is but I really think we might struggle to progress at the moment with our current pitch...
@calvertskans Couldn't agree more. Pitch may well become a priority sooner than we think..?
