Darlo Uncovered

Darlington Starting 11: Wilczynski, Trotman, Galbraith, Turnbull, Collins, Brown, Mills, Portas, Styche, Syers, Thompson

Darlington substitutes: Vaulks, Bancroft, Gillies, Saunders, Caton

HT 0-0. Playing very well in two thirds of the pitch but once again zero goal threat.

Well at least Styche had a good debut...

Ridiculous how many times we are conceding 3 or more goals a game.

The defence needs to be looked at & sharpish.

Least Styche scored a couple

Ed looked very dodgy tonight. Keeper needed.


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The Golden Hairclip wrote:Ed looked very dodgy tonight. Keeper needed.


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Same think said after Bartlett's debut. Let him get back in the swing of things and then judge.

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As much as we played OK tonight and enjoyed a lot of possession, we are a real soft touch and teams know it. Target number one has been failed... a cup run... hopefully we won't fail target number two... to stay in this league. But two wins in 19 games in all competitions is going to be a tall order to turn around.

To be fair now we've got a proper striker (12 goals so far) instead of the 3 powder puff cunnts who have been operating as "strikers" all season (Beck 1 goal, "Carts" 1 goal, Caton 1 goal), we have a better chance of turning things around.

Obviously the way we're conceding is worrying, though.

A combination of absolutely no threat in the final third and a soft defense says it all again.
If we have had half a dozen direct chances or shots on goal in last 3 home games I will be surprised!
Many think that Collins, Brown, Galbraith etc are good players and at times they are, but as a defensive unit they are shocking.
Fed up of watching home games with one striker against 4 defenders. No matter how good they are they will struggle. Yes good teams play with one up front but they have 3/4/5 midfielders and wide players charging forward to support and go past the centre forward, we just don't.
2 wins out of 19 with little sign of positive changes is relegation form by anyone's standards, and I,m afraid It doesn't look any better under Wright.

Tonight’s attendance?

Around 1,100


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Attendance was 1126. Defence gets caught out to many times but I thought we were poor in the centre if midfield tonight. Not one of Turnbulls best games.

Definitely in need of a goalkeeper.

I was feeling encouraged that we might be turning the corner but after the first goal we were a shambles. Styche looked a nuisance on the 3 occasions we got the ball to him, let's hope we can find a way to get him involved more. Was really frustrated with the officials tonight, no major cock-ups but several baffling decisions.
This run of results and performances is really starting to grind on me.

Quakerlad wrote:A combination of absolutely no threat in the final third and a soft defense says it all again.
If we have had half a dozen direct chances or shots on goal in last 3 home games I will be surprised!
Many think that Collins, Brown, Galbraith etc are good players and at times they are, but as a defensive unit they are shocking.
Fed up of watching home games with one striker against 4 defenders. No matter how good they are they will struggle. Yes good teams play with one up front but they have 3/4/5 midfielders and wide players charging forward to support and go past the centre forward, we just don't.
2 wins out of 19 with little sign of positive changes is relegation form by anyone's standards, and I,m afraid It doesn't look any better under Wright.

You're right that it doesn't look any better so far, but seeing as you're a big Gray lover I'll just point out that it'd be no different under him - his 3 strikers, signed on good money - have scored 1 apiece for Darlo this season. Thankfully we've fucked two of them off and brought in a replacement with a bit of pedigree.

The defence has been a shambles for a couple of seasons nearly.

Dunno what the answer is - with no rich benefactor to come in then we're going to have to work with what we have, and wheel and deal where possible.

Sadly some of the players have done their bit for Darlo and need to be moved on.

[quote="Quakerlad"]A combination of absolutely no threat in the final third and a soft defense says it all again.
If we have had half a dozen direct chances or shots on goal in last 3 home games I will be surprised!
Many think that Collins, Brown, Galbraith etc are good players and at times they are, but as a defensive unit they are shocking.
Fed up of watching home games with one striker against 4 defenders. No matter how good they are they will struggle. Yes good teams play with one up front but they have 3/4/5 midfielders and wide players charging forward to support and go past the centre forward, we just don't.
2 wins out of 19 with little sign of positive changes is relegation form by anyone's standards, and I,m afraid It doesn't look any better under Wright.[/quote

Doesnt look any better!!!! Give the lad a chance will yer... And not long ago everyone was praising them 3 players and now we are losing they get slagged off. What a joke it is on here sometimes

NOW we are losing???

Quakerz, I,m not a Gray lover at all and would love to see him fail, just happen to think that much of what he said at that fans forum is pretty much right.

The way he did it was completely out of order, but it's basically a fact that without investment we will reach our level, best players will leave, results struggle, attendances reduce, budget reduces....vicious circle etc. Sounds familiar!

He also said that the likes of Spennymoor, Blyth, South Shields would overtake us . Hate to say it, but be honest, how many of our current squad would get in Blyths or Spennymoor team currently? Not sure I can think of any. Always thought Turnbull , but not even sure about that on his current performances.

Have no idea how it can be worked to provide protection for the club but at the same time attract outside money, but like I have said previously, without some form of investment, I believe we will struggle to attract the better players. I am guessing that we are paying most if not all of Becks and Cartmans wages to Styche, which is not sustainable.

That's not to say that it is easy to attract investment because it clearly isn't, but like I have said previously, I believe the fan owned concept has taken us about as far as we can go without somehow changing our model.

Still respect though that many do not want any risk, but like most things in life, you need at least an element of risk to be successful. In my opinion.

Given that our form is absolutely atrocious, that it was an early stage in the competition, that we are one of the worst clubs in the history of cup football and that it felt like they could have filmed an episode of the Frozen Planet at BM, that crowd of 1126 is amazing really.

Quakerlad wrote:
The way he did it was completely out of order, but it's basically a fact that without investment we will reach our level, best players will leave, results struggle, attendances reduce, budget reduces....vicious circle etc. Sounds familiar!

Even with 'investment' (you actually mean a sugar daddy) we'd reach our level. And then by your logic the best players would leave, results would struggle etc etc.

At least we look like we've signed a striker who knows where the net is now. We've had a really tough run of fixtures since Wright took over (and we're only about halfway through it), and not many seriously expected to beat Harrogate tonight. But the number of goals conceded is a concern (as it has been for 18 months). No game next weekend might be well timed in terms of Wright being able to get some more time on the training pitch, although of course we'll likely slip down the table.

Quakerlad wrote:Quakerz, I,m not a Gray lover at all and would love to see him fail, just happen to think that much of what he said at that fans forum is pretty much right.

The way he did it was completely out of order, but it's basically a fact that without investment we will reach our level, best players will leave, results struggle, attendances reduce, budget reduces....vicious circle etc. Sounds familiar!

.

But where's the investment coming from? No one other than Singh wanted to invest.

Whenever you come on with one of your "everything's shite, we need more money" rants you ignore this simple fact.

There is no outside investment coming unless we sort it ourselves.

Whinging every time we lose and saying "We need outside investment" doesn't help anyone.

Get it through your thick skull - there is no outside investment coming. Would you honestly have accepted money from Singh in the summer?

Out of the 11 FA Trophy and FA Cup tournaments we’ve been eligible for since the Trophy win we’ve gone out at the first hurdle seven times. It’s doing my head in.

Something that needs to be borne in mind is that Harrogate had three young loan players who made their debuts for the club tonight and they had about eight players on the injury list. It could well be even more challenging in the two crucial league games that are to come.

Quakerz wrote:

Quakerlad wrote:A combination of absolutely no threat in the final third and a soft defense says it all again.
If we have had half a dozen direct chances or shots on goal in last 3 home games I will be surprised!
Many think that Collins, Brown, Galbraith etc are good players and at times they are, but as a defensive unit they are shocking.
Fed up of watching home games with one striker against 4 defenders. No matter how good they are they will struggle. Yes good teams play with one up front but they have 3/4/5 midfielders and wide players charging forward to support and go past the centre forward, we just don't.
2 wins out of 19 with little sign of positive changes is relegation form by anyone's standards, and I,m afraid It doesn't look any better under Wright.

You're right that it doesn't look any better so far, but seeing as you're a big Gray lover I'll just point out that it'd be no different under him - his 3 strikers, signed on good money - have scored 1 apiece for Darlo this season. Thankfully we've fucked two of them off and brought in a replacement with a bit of pedigree.

The defence has been a shambles for a couple of seasons nearly.

Dunno what the answer is - with no rich benefactor to come in then we're going to have to work with what we have, and wheel and deal where possible.

Sadly some of the players have done their bit for Darlo and need to be moved on.

But those players are more than good enough for the league below so we are planning ahead based on our current form....

Just need to get through this slump in form as it is vicious circle with player's confidence. They stop doing creative things for fear of failure & criticism both on the terraces and this forum, hence our play is predictable and the opposition just pick us off.

TW has his work cut out to bring back the team spirit which helped us get the promotions, but the fans also need to be supportive.

Too easy to criticise from the touchline and, to be fair, not a lot of things to be happy with. Darlo fans have stuck with the club through thick & thin over the years, just now it is very thin times but can only get better if we continue to stick together. Hold onto the positives like Styche getting the goals.

Some players may not have the heart for this struggle and need to move out to give youngsters or others who want to make the effort so back to TW to make the difficult decisions & for us to support them

We always knew it was going to be hard for any manager to come in and pick up the pieces of a squad and philosophy those players (and some more than most) had become accustomed to under Gray.

It's been a gamble to go with Wright as he is a young manager still forming his own managerial ideas. In his mind he won't have the right set of players for his liking and is having to make do with what he has, it will be a gradual change. There will be an element of tactical naivety - I have to say his prefered style of 1 up top is pretty negative and not conducive to being an attacking threat, made worse because our defence has been so leaky for a couple of seasons now. I am also surprised at how poor our defence has been since White has come back, I was expecting us to be much more organised after all many had called for him to come back to the club just for this reason and this has been a big disappointment so far - 3 goals against in every game so far doesn't bode well.

All in all I am willing to give Wright/White time but I am preparing for a relegation and that it may be from the league below where we judge. As a club a combination of circumstances and off-field decisions/over-sights have contributed to us stalling where we are. Sometimes you have to accept that in some situations you have to take a step back to go two more forwards.

The poor form was very evident towards the end of Gray's tenure, we are in a transition not only with style of play but players coming and going and we have to accept a season of rebuilding and make sure we are in this league next season.Hard to accept after all our success on the pitch but look at what we have achieved over the last 5 years off the pitch also.Give Tommy the rest of this season to get his squad ready, the stand completed and we go for it next year.

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QUAKERMAN2 wrote:The poor form was very evident towards the end of Gray's tenure, we are in a transition not only with style of play but players coming and going and we have to accept a season of rebuilding and make sure we are in this league next season.Hard to accept after all our success on the pitch but look at what we have achieved over the last 5 years off the pitch also.Give Tommy the rest of this season to get his squad ready, the stand completed and we go for it next year.

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Well said Ron, as usual. Some of the comments on the Facebook page about this club being too big for Wright are embarrassing. It’s a team in need of a re-boot mid-season. Some folk need to get a grip

grimsbyquaker wrote:It’s a team in need of a re-boot mid-season

True, but while that reboot is going on, it's also a team hurtling towards a relegation spot. 4 of our next 5 fixtures (Salford, Harrogate x 2 and York) we'll be doing well to get anything from. Our next home game against a team close to us in the table isn't until March, which means we're likely to be reliant on our stunning away form (1 win this season) to try and pick up points. So people are understandably concerned.

Presuming the expected defeat at the hands of Salford, the Gainsborough match is absolutely massive.

Working our way up through the Evostik leagues was one thing, but getting relegated back into them would be an absolute disaster - and one in which we'd be hard pushed to get back up again first time too as we'd run into South Shields.

Unfortunately we have some northern league defenders who are to slow for this league until this issue is addressed we will continue to struggle.

The defending was absolutely chronic in the highlights. A new centre back should be the priority. We lack a leader on the field to get things organised.