Really frustrating - but - Marc did say after Farnborough that many players were 'blowing' - and it showed tonight. Injuries take their toll not just on those injured, but those who have to keep playing.

Yes it was against 10, but we had only one midfielder (Theo didn't work in that position - unsurprisingly) and the long balls didn't really work.

Briggs still doesn't look right - does anyone know what injury he might be carrying? And what has happened to Murphy - not mentioned in the injury updates.

On another note - that crowd looked more than 1300 - the Bank was pretty packed. And great to see Marc applaud the Stones fans.

Murphy was mentioned in a recent update - spinal issue, affecting his nerves. When Marc said what it was he again sounded really peed off that so far it's frustrating for both the player and the club

Briggs was excellent in the early part of the season, I think last night the defender marking him just wouldn't give him an inch and Briggs just couldn't get past him. I think Briggs needed balls to be played ahead of him into the channel so that he could outpace the fullback.

Marc was annoyed with Jack Young wanting the ball all the time but seemingly not doing enough with it and bringing other players into play with it, but it's just a symptom of a misfiring midfield due to all the players missing there

Prior often shagged out when it's his second game in 4 days, to be fair his defensive clearances were excellent

Will be very happy with 4 pts from Chelmsford and Slough aways to stay in the mix

@dorking-eagle I will be amazed if we get more than 2 points from Chelmsford and Slough. Our injury/suspension list is getting absurd again:

Murphy (Unknown return)

McShane (Going out on loan shortly)

Carter (Unknown)

J.Taylor (Few weeks)

Moore (Probably 4-6 weeks)

Pybus (Unknown?)

McManus (Suspended for Saturday and injured last night)

Milsom (Injured last night)

Camp (Suspended for Slough)

Francomb (Sick but hopefully back this weekend?)

Did Norville-Williams pick up an injury as well last night as he was double-subbed? It didn't look like he did but it was a strange substitution if not...

I'm really not sure why we struggle so much with Sat/Tues combinations this season? Most of our team are "professional" full time footballers now and they all would be used to playing Sat/Tues throughout their careers. We also had an empty midweek last week so I don't understand why we gas so much in the second half. We surely have to be over or under training them?

I don't buy the whole "the non-injured players are playing too much" line. There is absolutely no chance that Marc would rest players in that situation if he had a fully fit squad to choose from. He would 100% start his strongest XI in both the Farnborough and Maidstone games. In fact, only 1 player has played in every game this season and that is Harrison Foulkes so there can't be that much fatigue.

We have another Sat/Tues and a Sat/Mon this month so we're going to surely have to look at loan options if these players can't handle it.

I think some of them 'gas' because they are so old (relative to the players they are playing against)

Many of the longstanding members of the squad still have their 'day jobs' as well - I'm not so worried about Niall being an accountant as I am Alfie being a roofer!

What we have is still enough to be top 7 in my opinion.

If we have a run in the Trophy (every penny helps) then it could seriously stretch the squad though.

Any sign of a new date for Lingfield at home in the Surrey Senior? Edit - looks like 10th Dec

Posted by: @baggy

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You are spot on @JacksonFairweather! 

A really flat performance and relieved to escape with a draw to be honest. Second half Maidstone wanted it more, created more and looked more likely to score. Really worrying that against ten men we could not pass around them and dominate possession- just like Salisbury game. 

Jimmy was a threat all game, Jack Young tried his best to get on the ball and make things happen but otherwise the energy levels were low and the passing awful at times. Didn’t create a chance until the last few minutes and then TC made a horrible mess of a free header.  If the players were tired  why pick virtually the same 11 as Saturday?  More injuries too.  Sorry to be negative but that was a very disappointing night, when hopes were high. 

Good summary. Crowd also disappointing too. Perhaps due to being a Tuesday night and too many home games in short period. Expected Maidstone to bring more. As you and Marc said, Maidstone were the better side once down to 10 men. Worry so many injuries in central midfield.

@dorking-eagle Yes, the issue is a mixed on, and a team/squad in transition. Those 'blowing' are, as you rightly say, probably the older players, who at the moment have little choice but to try and keep playing 90 mins. 

At the back last night, JNW should not really have come on - but had to - as his return is apparently still being managed. Which is why he probably went off again. So we had one midfielder, and no (fit) left back from 30 mins onwards. Add to the mix a 39 year old centre back and it's not hard to see why Maidstone decided they could out pace us at the back. We do seem to be conceding the same kind of goals, too - pacy players taking on and beating our defence which is a worry, but hopefully a fully fit Milsom/JNW will solve that. 

I do agree with Marc however that injuries impact those playing. It leads to out of position players, and removes any option of substituting like for like at any stage. Yes of course a strong and fit 11 should be capable of playing Sat - Tues, but even at the very highest level you see a degree of rotation (we all know of those moaning PL managers who can't seem to manage more than a game a week - even with huge squads and insane levels of backroom fitness staff).

Onwards and upwards.

@crawleysth Crowd looked way more than 1300. Bank was packed, Stones took 190 (?) which I guess is OK given midweek and the nightmare that is the M25

People don't have endless money to keep going to games when they come thick and fast and is Maidstone really a 'huge' fixture compared to any other team in the division?

Quite a cold night and people might have gone out with whole family in preceding days for firework displays.

Where are the ticket bundle deals, ie the option to buy 2 or 3 games from the next half a dozen and save a couple of quid per ticket?

I would argue Torquay is the only 'big' league fixture in this division, and that the only other potential for big crowds are boxing day, and any end of season final run in.

Other local teams were playing last night for neutrals/hoppers who just wanted a midweek football fix (eg Merstham where it's a tenner for adults)

Saying it's all ticket when the ground holds 4125 and on twitter saying sell out expected (eg suggests car parks potentially full) might even put people off who then make other choices.

@dorking-eagle I agree with the point around saying the match is 'all ticket' and heading for a 'sell out' and then always selling tickets on the day too (this has happened a number of times)

.. I am not sure what benefit this achieves (other than maybe some more in advance sales & a better way of achieving this could be making tickets slightly cheaper for online) 

if anything making a game all ticket may put off the casual supporters and groups of people attending as they cant always plan ahead or be bothered to buy tickets online in advance .... and then it may put off the 'on the day' groups of people as they may still think it is all ticket game and then don't know you can buy on the day and by then they have made other plans 

Indeed. Do the more casual fans check twitter regularly for the latest tweet, unless there is a risk of a game being off in bad weather. So they wouldn't have seen it was pay on the day.

I think the only benefit to the club is that pre paid tickets make quicker entry at the turnstiles as scanning a qr code is quicker than doing a payment - particularly when there is a queue near kick off time

Club could incentivise pre purchase online by having a small discount (even if only 50p)

On the positive, seen that the online shop now offers collection as an option (to save on the £5 postage charge - which was always off putting if buying one thing)

Also last night the club shop sheds got in a few items from the online shop, like t shirts and mugs, so again you could purchase on matchday and not have to pay postage (nor wait for delivery). 

Definite improvements! 

Agree with @adeb that the crowd definitely looked more than 1300. This feels like one where we got the figure wrong again which seems to be a regular occurence this season.

On a side note, the stats from the game make it look like we absolutely battered them:

xG: Dorking 2.02 - 1.18 Maidstone

Shots: Dorking 7 (3) - 10 (4)

Possession: Dorking 71% - 29% Maidstone (2nd highest this season)

Passes: Dorking 591 (487) - 225 (154) (Highest total and accurate passes this season)

Top Performer: Jimmy Muitt [7.9]

The passing stats are baffling considering it felt like we didn't string more than 5 passes together the entire second half...

Possession and passes %age not really surprising.  Most of the possession was between our penalty area and the half way line, and probably 80% of our passes was between the keeper and our back three.

Loved the half time penalty shoot-out. Great fun.

As an aside - the brilliant Alfie run and trip was a stonewall pen - I believe the ref has admitted it - and would have taken Maidstone to 9 men - game over. So frustrating.

Yeah I'm up for having a go in that half time shoot out! I'm an absolutely terrible penalty taker (although I did fluke one against Slav at the end of a training session a while back 😉)

Will Randall arrives on loan, left winger from Ebbsfleet

Bowerman not been meeting Marc's expectations for a while now.

Will Randall arrives on loan, left winger from Ebbsfleet

Bowerman not been meeting Marc's expectations for a while now.