Yeah I thought the support was great. Noisy, rowdy - and great.

We do have a smallish group of troublemakers, older boys, who turn up from time to time, but they most certainly were not there today. Believe me, if they had, we would really have known about it...

Lesson is - segregate if the away side is bringing any more than 50 or so.

On the subject of the actual game, once again we fell victim to players running at our midfield/defence. Lack of pace imo.

Plus some players once more seemed tired, and we were second to the ball too many times. Complete opposite of Chesterfield. Part time might be really is taking it's toll, but then again, aren't Maidenhead p/t too?

Agree Ade, Maidenhead do tickets for Under 17's at just £5 so if you're a teenager in Maidenhead what else are you going to do for a fiver? Hence they have a LOT of teenagers who go.

As a result it's surely common sense to segregate rather than have a daft game where Dorking fans kept having to move away from their fans because the home club couldn't let us have our own segregated bit (which would have been perfect for us)

Having read a few comments on twitter it seems like that annoying guy from Hong Kong could be the person in question. He just spent ages being abusive to the Maidenhead keeper, which was really stupid to be honest. By all accounts he is a Uni student from Reading Uni, so it's probably a one-off him even being there.

The stewarding and policing was ridiculously lax.  Shouldn’t need it really in this league but there are always a few idiots it seems and the home fans seemed intent on causing trouble.  I wonder if Marc is doing the classic distraction tactic by mentioning the fans singing- no idea either. 

On the field there were way too many basic mistakes, which led to the well taken goals. A pity Prior didn’t nod in that chance from close range but it’s hard to argue we deserved much out of that game.  Team selection was decent, although  I think Alfie should have started. Doesn’t matter what team is out there if there are that many mistakes. 

We're getting quite a bit of stick on social media from some - 'can't believe they're not already down' is something I've heard a few times now, and lots of stick for Haydon Hollis (and Craig too) - not at all justified imo.

Let's use this as motivation - would love us to really kick on now and survive by a distance. Backs to the wall time, maybe that's when we can be at our best.

Posted by: @adeb

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On the subject of the actual game, once again we fell victim to players running at our midfield/defence. Lack of pace imo.

Plus some players once more seemed tired, and we were second to the ball too many times. Complete opposite of Chesterfield. Part time might be really is taking it's toll, but then again, aren't Maidenhead p/t too?

Its a curious case of a lack of pace that has dogged the team on and off all season.

Marc was critical of players dropping off and dropping too deep yesterday. Perhaps its because they are now compensating for the lack of pace in the team? 

As an immediate measure, he needs to bring a younger defender into the team on loan with pace and play him.

But in the close season a serious clear out needs to occur. He needs to give younger lads a chance. I cannot remember the last player he signed who is under 23 years old and then actually played in the first team. They always get jogged on within a few weeks, out on loan and never seen again.

Anyone can help me out with the last player under 23 outfield that he signed and has actually played in the 1st team? Also, other teams have 1 or maybe 2 players over 35 in their squads. Dorking has 5 of them. 

Try not to be negative but it’s hard when you see the same failings over and over. I don’t blame Marc or the coaches or even the players I just don’t think the majority are up to it. Age has caught up with a lot of the players and the lack of pace continues to be our undoing defensively imo. Hollis in particular really struggles with any sort of movement from the forward players. On the flip side I don’t think we can question the players attitude or application, I do think they are giving their all.

We massively missed josh Taylor yesterday (he is our best player imo) and willl obviously miss him Tuesday night against a better side. If we can somehow scrape a draw from that game it really would be a fantastic result. Hopefully bowerman comes back in and joe cook is fit enough to partner Craig at the back.

In regards to our fans behaviour yesterday I didn’t see or hear anything too toxic. I felt the way the Maidenhead fans behaved was aggressive and incredibly stupid. Yes some of our fans reacted but I don’t feel like the dorking fans instigated anything imo. In regards to chanting didn’t hear anything negative at all and was surprised by Marc’s comments. Only thing I did see was some young lads bantering with their keeper (didn’t hear what was being said) which their keeper seemed to take in good spirits and even gave a bit back. As I was walking out with my family some ‘lads’ tried to give it the big one about the result but it’s best to ignore these morons. Overall I didn’t really find Maidenhead a pleasant away day experience! 

If we do go down I hope the club use it as an opportunity to clean house a bit and start a new cycle with a younger core. We already have some good pieces to build around in joe cook, male (if he stays obviously), Blair, bowerman, josh Taylor, Rutherford, pybus, carter etc. Part of me wonders if Marc rolls the dice a bit & tries to keep the squad together to quickly try and gain promotion back to the national league. But I’m sure carter, pybhs and male in particular will have interest from elsewhere. Either way it’s apart of the story and the journey. These times make the good times that much better! 

On the subject of segregation and I have got say I am not a fan of it! One of the best thing about Meadowbank is the fans zone  where everyone mingles talking about the game ahead. 

Yesterday I do wonder if our fans slightly confused everyone (Maidenhead officials) by standing behind the goal we were defending first half. We had similar thing at Solihull earlier in the season. It was a shame more were not behind the goal to see what a great goal Charlie scored (if the worst does happen I hope keep him, Marc promised a fan favourite he's delivered)! Dont get me wrong stand where you like but I do wonder if that was a surprise to the stewards and police. But once that happened the police and stewards should have created a split. And as for letting there fans change end with 10 minutes of first half to go complete joke!

The other thing to flag and to be fair I think it confused everyone in the ground!?! The announcement at half time about homophobic chanting I didn't hear anything myself but maybe Marc was reacting to that and if there was any that can p*** off out of our club (and football)!

As for barracking of there goalkeeper second half some of that was pretty embarrassing and one or two do need to relax a bit, but fair play to him he seemed to have a bit of laugh at the end! 

I dont keep tabs on players statistics but I guess Joe Cook?

Interesting that Marc interrupted his post match chat to point out Joe is injured. 

Marc deffo prefers experience over youth and is very loyal to his stalwarts.

In his Friday update no question the club are anything but loyal to Briggs and in the post match, praise for Jason, whereas 'two thirds' of the outfield weren't good enough yesterday.

If we go down, a handful of the squad are prob too good or too expensive to be playing in the NLS and will leave for those reasons.

If we do stay up, a handful really need to be moved on and play elsewhere at a lower level. The 'more full time' model might be the thing that makes a few of the old guard have to leave anyway?

Need a good hard look at the injury records across the squad too when having a clearout/rebuilding.

Someone like Kuhl would be excellent for the NLS for example. 

For someone so communicative you still dont really know what Matc is really thinking because I wonder if a lot of the time he is trying to use his comments to motivate watching players one way or another.

PS did also watched a game of Football!

We cant keep giving rubbish goals away like that! Personally with our pace issue at the back and across the team that hill on the pitch must have been close to our worst nightmare really added to there pace on break in the first half.

But second half when we went down the hill there was only one team in the game, admittedly be then they had a 2 goal lead to defend but up until another mistake a the back very late on for me only one team looked like scoring second half! I was a bit critical of him the other week but I though Jason had a good game and caused them loads of problems

Anyway onwards and hopefully upwards but 2 really nasty games coming up! Lets have a bit of defending please!

I also heard the announcement at half time about homophobic chanting yet never heard any such chants. 

And nobody on my sizable away fans WhatsApp group has a clue what song Marc is referring to either, many are a bit annoyed by the suggestion of any wrongdoing by Dorking fans at a game when we had to move around just to watch the game in peace and safety (ie it should have just been segregated)

Last time we were in the NLS I dont remember any segregated games, not even Maidstone. But then most of the time we took 30-60 fans away most places.

If we go down we are likely to take 100 - 200 away most places in the South east, and about 100 to the furthest west country games. A bit too much for the 'hang around the halfway line to see what way we are kicking' faff. People tend to all group together at one end before the game, then cant be bothered to move en masse if we are kicking the other way (only to then have the home support descend on us and get all territorial!)

Hey ho, what will be. 

Enjoy Mothers Day. Up the Wands.

Posted by: @dorking-eagle

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I dont keep tabs on players statistics but I guess Joe Cook?

 

Joe Cook was jogged off on loan for 3 months of this season to Weymouth. 

He was not a regular prior to this season either...

I do not have the statistics at hand but from memory he has not ever been a regular

@jacksonfairweather Was definitely a regular last season once he joined us permanently in January. We played a back 3 of Francomb/Craig/Cook every game once they were all in the building.

Rutherford played for us regularly when he was 23 as well. When we first signed Procter he was a regular player for a little bit and he was 20 when we signed him. Oldaker was 23 when he played for us as well.

@dorking-eagle Yep, exactly this David. I think it was based on the fact last year we kicked towards that end first half, and, I think, Maidenhead normally prefer to go 'downhill' second half. Then nobody could be bothered to move. 

But the numbers we took/take are too high not to segregate imo. And personally I prefer segregation, everyone likes to stand/sit amongst their own, and it makes for a better atmosphere. 

Just watched DWFTV video of game. Looks like poor stewarding to me. They should never have allowed fans to be so close without segregation, and lucky trouble was not worst than it was. Hopefully,  Maidenhead will learn for future. Crawley is very cheap for teenagers too, but all U14s have to be accompanied by adult, and full segregation. 

Going forward, I think Dorking have to win 4 out of last 9 to stay up. A hard ask, but possible if Marc can motivate his players like he did for Chesterfield game (I don't think it helps him criticising individuals in his post match interviews).

I think ideally need to win both next 2 games, as will be hard to get anything out of Barnet Bromley an Aldershot