Dorking Wandering
The Dorking Wanderers FC Fans Forum
We ended up with 10 points from the 8 games played the last time we predicted this so let's see what we think we can get from the last quarter of the season. Home form has obviously been poor but we've made up for that somewhat by picking up good results away from home. We're still not sure when Wealdstone (A) will be so i've just slotted it in for the 19th March for now:
Chesterfield (H) - 0
Altrincham (A) - 0
Maidenhead (A) - 3
Southend (A) - 1
Solihull (H) - 1
Wealdstone (A) - 3
Barnet (A) - 0
Bromley (H) - 1
Aldershot (A) - 0
Altrincham (H) - 3
Rochdale (A) - 1
Hartlepool (H) - 3
TOTAL POINTS = 16
I think we need 15+ points from here so I think the above should just about keep us up.
The form of Chesterfield and Altrincham has dipped a bit recently but I still don't see us getting much from these with the players we have missing and low confidence of the side.
I can see us getting results away at Maidenhead and Southend. I don't think our pitch will suit the likes of Solihull and Altrincham so I can see us getting results in those. Barnet's form has also dipped but I think that one will be beyond us.
I'm hoping that fixture congestion causes Wealdstone too many problems and we can get a crucial 3 points at their place.
I'd like to think the boys can get themselves up for a crucial last game of the season at home to Hartlepool, especially if Hartlepool haven't got much to play for at that point.
@dorking-eagle Tactically outsmarted may be a bit generous no? We sat back in a low block and nicked a last minute wonder goal by chance.
Lol I was just putting bait out there to see how many would bite. But on a serious note I think him and Marc would be a good fit.
I think our tactics were spot on for York away and York/Ardley didn't have the means to beat it. Lots of their fans moaned afterwards about the shortcomings of their own tactics against us.
"Why would I leave to join a League Two club? We're going there anyway!" - Marc White
Lol I was just putting bait out there to see how many would bite. But on a serious note I think him and Marc would be a good fit.
It's an interesting idea Gaz. When we faced him previously Marc described Ardley as 'his' clubs manager (ie formerly Wimbledon's). Similar age to Marc.
Just think with Ross having (been) moved on last thing we need is to expand the management team again.
"Why would I leave to join a League Two club? We're going there anyway!" - Marc White
Not a great night for Dorking as Kiddy & Woking winning!!!!
@happy-hammers It sure isn't. I was watching the Chesterfield game, and saw Kiddy up, but Woking down by 2. Next thing both teams have won, and we have fallen to 23rd. Points are still really close. Hoping that our GD want be our downfall in the end.
That is my worry too Rob. Got to be as tight as we can on Saturday.
Lets look at the remaining games
Chesterfield H- 0
Altrincham A- 1
Maidenhead A- 3
Southend A- 0
Sollihul Moors H- 1
Barnet A- 0
Bromley H- 0
Aldershot A- 0
Altrincham H- 3
Rochdale A- 0
Hartlepool H- 1
Wealdstone A- 3
That is 12 points and a final total of 50. Will it be enough?
@happy-hammers It sure isn't. I was watching the Chesterfield game, and saw Kiddy up, but Woking down by 2. Next thing both teams have won, and we have fallen to 23rd. Points are still really close. Hoping that our GD want be our downfall in the end.
If Dorking go down, I think it will be a number of reasons including goal difference, injuries, not scoring enough, conceding too many, letting Seager go, not signing loan players when we had injuries, and playing the wrong formation at times, particularly at home.
However, the main reason will be our home form. It is now the worst in the league with a goal difference of -12. Our away form is fine and mid-table with four more points from two less games and gd of-6. When playing the bottom half at home we have only 10 points, 3 wins, 1 draw and 7 defeats, a lot of them heavy. As someone said, we now need to treat every home game as an away game, play four at the back, and try and nick a goal or two.
As Tom says, I think we will need more than 50 to stay up with other teams winning (maybe 52 or 53?)
@crawleysth A big issue responsible for all of what you have mentioned is that we do not have enough quality players in their prime athletic years of 23-28 playing for us.
Marc has stuck with older players for too long. When he has previously brought in younger players to try and redress the imbalance they get bombed out or not given a chance at all in the first team. There are players we can think of here with higher level playing experience bombed out. A player makes one error and that is it, game over. Younger loan players brought in, either not even played or barely used.
This all adds up over time to create a squad that is overwhelmingly too old overall. Experience is important and it is good to have 2-3 around the place. But when so many are over 30 and some over 35 its really too much. To then complain about the number of injuries is also odd, as its well known older players get injured more often.
Unfortunately this issue has all come on top of the club this season, even though it was apparent even last season something needed to be done. To his credit he has brought in Pybus, Carter, Blair, and Bowerman.
Lets hope Mark can pull a rabbit out of a hat here and keep us up.
Interesting watching back series 2 of BoA - and a couple of things are apparent.
One is that the team is broadly similar but seem to play with more pace - and the missing players - Briggs, McShane especially - are the real stand outs and it shows how crucial they are.
The other point is that during interviews with Marc it becomes very clear that the promotion that eventually follows, comes to soon, both in terms of players and infrastructure. So with that in mind perhaps it wouldn't be a total disaster to get relegated, allowing re-grouping and getting everything in place to really push on next time. Obviously not ideal, but it happens, and as David says, it happens to much, much bigger clubs. What matters is that we keep pushing and developing - especially behind the scenes.
Ultimately, i'm not that fussed if we go down for the reasons that have been stated (gives us a chance to develop off the field, etc). However, it is so important that we don't lose momentum as a club and I really hope we don't stagnate and then ultimately start to slip down even further.
Average league position of remaining opponents
18. Wealdstone (12.9)
19. Fylde (14.8)
20. York (11.2)
21. Kiddy (11.4)
22. Woking (12.5)
23. Dorking (8.6)
"Why would I leave to join a League Two club? We're going there anyway!" - Marc White
Then again our record is terrible against the teams in the bottom half, so may suit us!
Chesterfield (H) - 0
Altrincham (A) - 0
Maidenhead (A) - 3
Southend (A) - 1
Most people had us getting 4 points from these first 4 games and we end up with 3. I think we need 9 points minimum from the last 4 home games and then 3 or 4 points from the away games to stay up now.
