2 points dropped no question, but what a performance second half. Full of skill and running, should've made it 3 or 4-1.

Top of the league albeit having played more games than most. On to Salisbury and still 45 points to play for...

Top of the league, but felt like a punch in the guts with the late equaliser. Although we had the warning with their shot just wide about 2 mins earlier!

That one off the line in the first half eventually cost us the win. 2nd half we were very dominant.

Marc's post match interview is well worth a watch. Impossible to know all the mind games going on but the way he honestly said that we could lose 5 of the remaining games felt like he is kind of mentally accepting play offs rather than a title push. The games in hand the likes of Worthing and Borehamwood have is likely to ultimately decide it.

Salisbury was a strange home game, only one team in it the first 80 mins, then it went bonkers! Making a weekend of it, seeing the cathedral etc on the Sat morning and Stonehenge the day after. Proper football tourist weekend!

Thinking about this a bit more, I do kind of agree with Marc on this one.

We played well second half, Hampton rested on Saturday and their management watched us. The fact Hampton fans were delighted with a point against us from that says a lot too.

Even if we had won last night, Worthing fans would have been looking at the table and saying they are 3 points off the top with 3 games in hand, so we would still not have had finishing top 'in our own hands'.

We do still face Boreham Wood away on an excellent pitch, Torquay who we have beaten at home last time we played them at home, and potentially a huge 6 pointer at Worthing in our penultimate game.

We still have a fighting chance of a strong finish to the season, and some of the play yesterday was excellent. Josh Taylor was really great I thought.

@dorking-eagle I agree. I thought Charlie and Briggs really stood out last night too - Briggs cutting in down the middle looked so dangerous - would like to see some more of that.

Obviously dissapointing to concede a late equaliser but I don't think a point was necessarily a bad result away from home against an in-form side and it is one that I would have taken before the game. I think we will likely need to win every home game between now and end of the season and we likely won't be able to lose to Worthing and Boreham Wood either if we want to win the title.

That being said, we've not won that game due to poor subs and lack of rotation. It was a big discussion point before the game and we suffered late in that game as a result. It also sounds like we will suffer in the next couple of games with Marc mentioning that Briggs and Muitt came off with problems and Josh Taylor looked like he was struggling at the end as well. Prior played yet another 90 mins and looked very tired at the end.

It was a mistake from a tactical point of view as well as Gallagher was really struggling on that right hand side and he didn't get any help until injury time when Francomb game on and we went to a back 4 but we had already conceded by that point.

I think Salisbury will be a massive test now and it wouldn't surprise me if we drop points there as well. Really hope we some fresh legs come in to the side with the likes of Murphy, McManus, Young, etc all starting. We could even see B.Taylor get a first start of the season as well.

Stats from the game last night don't make for great reading:

Possession: Hampton 55% - 45% Dorking (Our lowest possession of the season and only the 2nd time we've had less than 50%)

xG: Hampton 0.92 - 1.05 Dorking

Shots (On Target): Hampton 13 (5) - 10 (4) Dorking

Passess (Accurate): Hampton 338 (250) - 254 (164) Dorking (By far our lowest passing stats of the season)

Long Balls: Hampton 46 - 45 Dorking (Our 2nd lowest amount of long balls attempted of the season)

Dorking Top Performer: Jimmy Muitt [7.6]

Very surprised by those possession stats.  It seemed like a very dominant performance for most of the game, although Hampton always posed a threat on the break.  There was no attempt to play out from the back at all so surprised by the long ball stat too. A good tactic in the circs to go long. 

Agree on the subs, especially annoying if those extra minutes produced niggles too. Plenty of depth in midfield too - Young and what has Pybus done wrong? And baffling that Murphy does not get a sniff. But good to Francombe back - surely will play Saturday if Brooking is not back by then? 

Posted by: @baggy

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Agree on the subs, especially annoying if those extra minutes produced niggles too. Plenty of depth in midfield too - Young and what has Pybus done wrong? And baffling that Murphy does not get a sniff. But good to Francombe back - surely will play Saturday if Brooking is not back by then? 

Marc has said a couple of times recently that Pybus isn't match fit and we can't afford to carry Pybus in matches while he gets his fitness back. He did mention they were debating a loan for him (Horsham perhaps?).

Also mentioned that Brooking might be back for Tonbridge at the earliest but probably Welling a few days later. Brennan Camp will possibly be the week after (Farnborough).

@calvertskans It's a lot of crucial injuries again, isn't it. I do wonder (does anyone know) how the other 'top 5' are faring injury wise - similar problems?

I do think we'll probably need a signing or two if we are going to challenge for the title in this run-in. Would like to see a left winger come in and possibly another left footed centre back.

Simple logic for me is that if we win on Saturday we stay top

And if we follow that up with a win at home to Tonbridge we stay top.

Can't read too much more into looking at the table. Other teams have games in hand. It's our job to get maximum points every time we play from now on and see if others have the stamina to keep up (and eventually overtake us if they win their games in hand)

Can't afford many more dropped points from now on though.

I am wondering if player management has been an area that the Wanderers have struggled with? Game management, and tactics seem to be top notch at Dorking. Yet, especially over the last two seasons, it seems as though we are always in injury crisis (mid-field in the beginning of this season now RB position). I don't have answers just a thought that popped up reading the discussion of players fatigue, resting, etc. with the back to back games.

@robh There has been an early season massive injury crisis every season now since the 2021-2022 season. For the last 4 seasons in a row. We have had an unprecedented injury crisis.

We do get way more injuries at the beginning of the season than most teams, and given it happens every single season something is clearly way off. It is not just due to the average age of the players either, as younger lads also spend significant time on the side-lines. It is also not just due to the pitch. The season that we went up in 2021-2022, if we had not had that terrible early season injury crisis, then we would have gone up automatically.

Perhaps as the physical demands of the level we play at have increased on matchdays, the training methods and preparation have not adjusted to match that? It is a big topic to go into...

@jacksonfairweather This is (partly) what Jon Bines was brought into the club for - and (I don't have the stats) but I believe it's improved significantly since his arrival, although these things do take time to change.

Apparently you can expect to have around 10% of your first team squad out through injury at any given point - that's the norm. I think we're still working towards that figure but we are still carrying legacy injuries atm.

Don't want to speak too soon, but JP's continued fitness and run in the first team might be a good indicator.

The matches with the highest number of players out injured this season was Slough (A) and Weston (A) where we had 9 out injured in both (we also had a suspension in the Slough game as well).

If you look at the period of Aveley (A) back in early September, all the way through to Chippenham (A) in mid-December, we had at least 6 players out injured in every match with an average of between 7-8 missing. On top of this, you also have players playing through injuries and those returning from injury who aren't match fit yet.

Since the Chesham (A) game a week later though, we have had either 4 or 5 players injured in every game so we can definitely see an improvement in recent months. However, I do think that number will be slightly higher for the Salisbury match tomorrow...

It would be interesting to hear how our injury list compares to those of other leading teams; and to see if there is any link with those with artificial pitches.  I was reading of new research on rugby union which shows how knee injuries are much more common in teams with artificial pitches. 

I am no fitness expert at all, but it seems that some players seem able or are asked to play 90 minutes every week, and others need to have their minutes "managed".  If players are more likely to sustain injuries late in the game, then it makes the subs policy on Tuesday all the more baffling.  All the players put a really good shift in and dominated the physical battles I thought, so not surprising if they ran out of steam at the end.