Darlington FC V Salford

[Darlogramps]

If

To say we were awful is ridiculous. We played well in large parts of the game, same as we did against York. Im as concerned as anyone about the defensive mistake, but im been mildly encouraged by recent performance. Play at tonights level and we will beat lesser teams

But we don't. We always screw up against the lesser teams, so saying "If we play like that against lesser teams we'll be fine," is utterly pointless and cliched, bordering on vacuous.

Once again we've screwed up when we should have got something out of the game. Salford weren't good so let's not have any "We pushed the league leaders close."

Once again we're none the wiser about what Wright's strategy is. Evidently he doesn't have one.

Once again we're making the same defensive errors.

And once again I'm left asking the question - how long does he get? A relegation would be dreadful - we can't afford it to happen.

Given his record is comparable to Todd and Staunton, I don't think even the most ardent Wright supporter can say with any confidence that he was the correct appointment. The only thing worse than making a bad appointment is failing to rectify it.

I will offer my opinion same as everyone else. If you dont like it fine but dont start that personal stuff with me.

To sack a manager after 10 games is crazy. Not only that we cant afford it.

What? Where have I been personal? Genuinely I want you tell me where in that reply I made a personal remark.

On Wright - what's crazier? Sacking a failing manager after 10 games, or keeping him on out of embarrassment?

“Vacuous” - I’d say that was personal


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Then you need to grow up and stop being ridiculous. It's a criticism of the lazy, cliched opinion.

[QuakerPete]

vacuous generally meaning mindless or lacking intelligence.

Im not particularly a TW fan but 10 games to establish himself? Hes not had an easy run of games. I would think if we get beat Saturday then even biggest fans of him will start to turn.

Vacuous being a reference to the lazy phrase "If we play like we did tonight we'll beat lesser teams," repeated more than once in this thread by different people. It's meaningless nonsense.

It was a criticism of the opinion. You're being ridiculous and pathetic if you think that's a personal attack. Why can't people accept criticism of their arguments?

On Wright- can we stop using the difficult run of games as an excuse? Regardless of fixtures, that squad of players is better than a run of 1-1-8.

And more so, it's the lack of progress towards a coherent style of play. It's failure to establish a regular starting XI. It's the repeated defensive mistakes. It's the fragility which sees us collapse in the 2nd half of games.

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“Ridiculous” and “Pathetic” - they’re quite personal, too


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[Quaker0006]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk[/quote]

Then you need to grow up and stop being ridiculous. It's a criticism of the lazy, cliched opinion.[/quote]

Grow up? Im not the person constantly looking to pick holes in what every person says. Content, grammar - just whatever if the opinion is different to yours. I will write my opinion and i dont need to explain it to you.

[Darlogramps]

“Ridiculous” and “Pathetic” - they’re quite personal, too

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Yep, if someone is going to be ridiculous and pathetic about their opinion being criticised, they deserve to have their behaviour labelled that way.

Now are you going to continue this silliness? I'll go all day if you want.

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[Darlogramps]

Grow up? Im not the person constantly looking to pick holes in what every person says. Content, grammar - just whatever if the opinion is different to yours. I will write my opinion and i dont need to explain it to you.

Now look who's making personal attacks.....

You're entitled to write an opinion. But you're not entitled for it to go unchallenged. If I question it and you flip out, it reflects badly on you.

[MKDarlo]

It's like a broken record.....play quite well for chunks of the game and just give it away yet again.
Enough is enough for me with TW. Changed the whole midfield again from Saturday and continues to play Thompson as a wing back. Wheatley andvSyers did ok but hey let's bring in an out of form Turnbull to sit in front of the back four as he does and play a creative midfielder alongside him, Scott!! Where does he get these ideas from.

but surely that is exactly what we have been asking for - some for of defensive screen in front of the back 4. You can hardly blame TW for going with that mindset against the league leaders.

But for one disgustingly poor decision from our main goal threat a point was there for the taking - and w would have all taken it at the start if we are honest.

[MKDarlo]

To say we were awful is ridiculous. We played well in large parts of the game, same as we did against York. Im as concerned as anyone about the defensive mistake, but im been mildly encouraged by recent performance. Play at tonights level and we will beat lesser teams

But we don't. We always screw up against the lesser teams, so saying "If we play like that against lesser teams we'll be fine," is utterly pointless and cliched, bordering on vacuous.

Once again we've screwed up when we should have got something out of the game. Salford weren't good so let's not have any "We pushed the league leaders close."

Once again we're none the wiser about what Wright's strategy is. Evidently he doesn't have one.

Once again we're making the same defensive errors.

And once again I'm left asking the question - how long does he get? A relegation would be dreadful - we can't afford it to happen.

Given his record is comparable to Todd and Staunton, I don't think even the most ardent Wright supporter can say with any confidence that he was the correct appointment. The only thing worse than making a bad appointment is failing to rectify it.

lose on Saturday and something has to change. It cant go on. I like Tommy as a bloke but i don't think he is up to the job. I want him to prove me wrong. I don't think he will or can.

I think we are going down.

[al_quaker]

Disappointing to see the state that the Salford dugout was left in

https://twitter.com/darlouncovered/stat ... 2356349952

[Quaker0006]

Lose saturday (or maybe even not win) it will be hard to defend him. Some teams around us also playing each other. Big, big weekend

[Darlogramps]

To say we were awful is ridiculous. We played well in large parts of the game, same as we did against York. Im as concerned as anyone about the defensive mistake, but im been mildly encouraged by recent performance. Play at tonights level and we will beat lesser teams

But we don't. We always screw up against the lesser teams, so saying "If we play like that against lesser teams we'll be fine," is utterly pointless and cliched, bordering on vacuous.

Once again we've screwed up when we should have got something out of the game. Salford weren't good so let's not have any "We pushed the league leaders close."

Once again we're none the wiser about what Wright's strategy is. Evidently he doesn't have one.

Once again we're making the same defensive errors.

And once again I'm left asking the question - how long does he get? A relegation would be dreadful - we can't afford it to happen.

Given his record is comparable to Todd and Staunton, I don't think even the most ardent Wright supporter can say with any confidence that he was the correct appointment. The only thing worse than making a bad appointment is failing to rectify it.

lose on Saturday and something has to change. It cant go on. I like Tommy as a bloke but i don't think he is up to the job. I want him to prove me wrong. I don't think he will or can.

I think we are going down.

I think this is where a lot of Darlington fans are.

And unfortunately, Alfreton is the kind of game we've been losing chaotically all season.

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[My opinion]

To say we were awful is ridiculous. We played well in large parts of the game, same as we did against York. Im as concerned as anyone about the defensive mistake, but im been mildly encouraged by recent performance. Play at tonights level and we will beat lesser teams

But we don't. We always screw up against the lesser teams, so saying "If we play like that against lesser teams we'll be fine," is utterly pointless and cliched, bordering on vacuous.

Once again we've screwed up when we should have got something out of the game. Salford weren't good so let's not have any "We pushed the league leaders close."

Once again we're none the wiser about what Wright's strategy is. Evidently he doesn't have one.

Once again we're making the same defensive errors.

And once again I'm left asking the question - how long does he get? A relegation would be dreadful - we can't afford it to happen.

Given his record is comparable to Todd and Staunton, I don't think even the most ardent Wright supporter can say with any confidence that he was the correct appointment. The only thing worse than making a bad appointment is failing to rectify it.

lose on Saturday and something has to change. It cant go on. I like Tommy as a bloke but i don't think he is up to the job. I want him to prove me wrong. I don't think he will or can.

I think we are going down.

Don't agree with you MK. The last four performances have seen us play a lot better, though we have not got the points we deserved.
Prior to the Boxing day game most on here thought we were going to get hammered for the full 4 games.
1st game we won and deserved the victory (in my opinion)
2nd game we played very well first half and blew it with a poor 2nd half (in my opinion)
3rd game we were in the game from start to finish and deserved a point (in my opinion)
And today we at the very least deserved a point after playing very well against the top team in the league... Plenty on here are saying how poor Salford were, They were only poor because we made them that way..
We had two major actions that went against us today. The ridiculous attempt at a penalty and the lapse in concentration in the 90th minute.
We were badly punished for both errors. But, our luck must change and I am very positive after these last few performances.
Yes I know we conceed the same stupid break away goals but signs were there today of stopping that. All of our attacking set pieces were well covered defensively as our players were watching out for a quick break from the opposition
The plus side is that apart from Trotman who is injured, ALL of TW's new signings have made a difference, and I do like the look of Trotman who I believe will be a valuable addition to our squad.(in my opinion)
My glass is half full while a lot on here have a half empty glass.

[quaker4life]

Yes indeed we showed Salford up tonight, we made them look so bad they won.

They were negative last night I actually thought they played much better on the opening day when we beat them at their place, they seemed content to take 0-0 at half time and snatch a 1-0 and defend it and they looked like they were going to do just that until Mills of all people popped up with a goal, full credit to the lad also he was excellent tonight his best performance since joining us without doubt and thoroughly deserved MOTM.

I didn't think I'd ever live to see a worse penalty than that by Dean Windass against Bury in the 09/10 season, Reece Styche take a bow fella. 0-0 against the league leaders with hardly any clear cut chances in the game you get a golden opportunity to make it 1-0 surely you're going smash it? Why do that when you can chip the ball straight into the arms of the keeper? Absolutely atrocious and quite possibly a very decisive moment in the game.

Salford seemed to wake up after that and took the lead and I was thinking here we go again.

I don't know what shocked me more in the end Styche's "Taxi" moment or Mills scoring?! I was clock watching after that hoping and praying we could actually hang on and take a point but no yet again, despite Salford not being at the races tonight, we still lost.

When you look at Salford's results this season they haven't really battered teams, particularly away and you can see why despite not being on top form tonight they still won but good teams aways find a way.

It's like groundhog day now it's been the same old story being good in patches of games and then giving them away through individual errors or collective bad defending as was the case again tonight.

I just hope we're not made to regret Styche's misplaced arrogance tonight come April, it's no good repeating the same old mantra every week we need to start getting points on the board and quickly we have to arrest this slide before we end up being cut adrift.

Lose to Alfreton on Saturday and I genuinely can't see a way out of it.

[Darlo_Pete]

Really pleased with our overall performance tonight. Styche's penalty was the worst I have ever seen, he chipped it in the air with no pace, the keeper feel to the floor and just lay there as it feel into his hands. Having said that if it had come off, then we'd all be raving about it on here. I think we more than matched them until the last 10 minutes, when there superior fitness started to tell.
I was stood between the 2 dugouts and somebody was having a go at TW for not bringing off Mills from the balcony. Thought Mills had a solid game and when he scored, TW looked round to the individual. One of their management duo said during the match, where is the extra fencing gone that MG got last week. But he wasn't bothered as he said we were a friendly lot.
Thought the crowd of 1350 was decent considering, there was footie on TV. The Salford contingent was pitiful. Given there position in the league to only bring around 50 fans was dreadful. If the positions had been reversed and we were top of the table, we'd probably of taken a good 300 to 400 through to Salford.
Finally thought the referee had a cracker of a game. It always seems when we get a female ref, she always seems to have a great game. Funny when there was the tussle on the pitch, she just stood to the side watching what was happening, rather than getting involved.

[PierremontQuaker03]

Yes we are in a relegation fight, but to say we are down already is laughable.
We have had good performances of late, and York, Harrogate and Salford all found it difficult to beat us. The reason we are down there at the moment is that we have not done well against the teams around us, who we should be beating - this hopefully will change on Saturday.
No mention of any new players coming in on loan - maybe we need a fresh set of legs for Saturday.

[tezza]

Disappointing to see the state that the Salford dugout was left in

https://twitter.com/darlouncovered/stat ... 2356349952

Also the car park, where several supporters seemed to have dumped the household rubbish ... you know who you are ..behave

[MKDarlo]

Yes we are in a relegation fight, but to say we are down already is laughable.
We have had good performances of late, and York, Harrogate and Salford all found it difficult to beat us. The reason we are down there at the moment is that we have not done well against the teams around us, who we should be beating - this hopefully will change on Saturday.
No mention of any new players coming in on loan - maybe we need a fresh set of legs for Saturday.

How many points have we taken in these "good" performances? That's right - none. Did we have a good performance v Gainsborough or Tamworth? I don't want good performances and nearly winning! I want enough points to stay in this division. Finding it difficult to beat us? FFS It cant have been that difficult for sides to beat us as we are third bottom of the bloody league!

We don't have any money for new players. We need to get the ones we have playing to a standard where we can grind out points versus the team around us. I don't think we can do that as we make the same mistakes time and time again. Why? We have the same "lapses in concentration" time and again. Why? We have the same "individual errors" time and time again. Why?

We can slag Martin Gray of as much as we like but he got a better standard of performance out of this group of players than Tommy Wright.

BTW - my glass isnt half full. It fell on the floor and broke into lots of tiny pieces. We are terrible and if we don't get ourselves sorted out very, very quickly we will go down. Come full time on Saturday we could ( and i think might going on our recent form) be second bottom of the league and adrift. That simply isnt acceptable.

[m62exile]

On last night in isolation - I thought TW picked the right team in the right shape for what it's worth. Not many would have played Leon but he did the ugly stuff all night and broke up play time after time. Sure, he's not going to give you 50 yard passes but against a superior team I thought it was the right call.

At kick off I'd have said I'd have liked to have seen Harvey up front alongside Styche as part of a front two which he's not had chance to do but Mills was decent so can accept that choice too.

First goal was always likely to shape the result, we should have got it and then had something to hang on to. I honestly thought we ran out of legs badly in the last 15 minutes just in the same way we did against Harrogate at home until they had their sendings off which saved us a bit. No doubt that the full time teams we've played have more in the tank in the closing minutes.

[Spyman]

But for one disgustingly poor decision from our main goal threat a point was there for the taking - and w would have all taken it at the start if we are honest.

But this seems to have been the problem since Wright took over if not before. Bad decision making at key moments.

A team in our position should not be showboating or taking uneccessary risks. The message from the management should be crystal clear. Keep it simple, safety first, no unecessary risk taking.

I haven't seen this penalty but can only imagine he tried some fancy little chip down the middle? If so Wright needs to call him out on it, take the captaincy off him and give it to someone more responsible. Set an example.

[al_quaker]

If so Wright needs to call him out on it, take the captaincy off him and give it to someone more responsible. Set an example.

On the contrary, I'd personally be wary of making too much of an example of him. Styche is our best chance of staying up. He's our biggest goal threat by a mile. Wright said he shouldn't have done it in the PMI. Styche has apologised - the bloke sounds devastated at his lapse in judgement. We don't want him to go into his shell, lose confidence and have the goals dry up.

Styche knows he cocked up. Wright and Styche have both condemned it in public. That's enough for me. Time to draw a line under it.

[Darlogramps]

Yep, agree with that. Styche has humiliated himself and apologised for it, to the extent where he supposedly sought Stod for an interview to apologise. He's quite clearly embarrassed about it.

So long as he doesn't try the same thing in the next game, there's no need to compound his humiliation.

He's the one player who I think can get us out of this mess. We need him performing if we're to survive. Damaging his confidence further is self-defeating.

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[SFG]

Background screaming on the PA system after Salford scored their second goal didn't sound too good? What was that about?

[lo36789]

We can slag Martin Gray of as much as we like but he got a better standard of performance out of this group of players than Tommy Wright.

The core of our side is pretty different now to what it was under Martin Gray. Tamworth and Gainsborough were bad results but equally Harrogate at home was a surprisingly good result.

I am surprised that losing by one goal after missing a penalty against top of the league and full time Salford City is the breaking point for people.

If we don't pick up any points in the next 3 games then I'll change my tune. Alfreton & Leamington should be ripe for getting at least 2 draws against. Our fixture list doesn't really get 'expected' wins until Curzon Ashton & North Ferriby at home though.

[dsr]

I’m not despondent after last night.
As others have said, we stretched Salford plenty of times and clearly had them rattled.
On the other hand, it was obvious they played faster, direct football. With the ball in their own half they ran forward at speed and passed along the ground = basic higher division stuff. We started forward a yard slower and then checked, before trying to go forward again against a regrouped defence = basic lower division play. We also left too much room on the wings, particularly our right side where Salford’s No. 7 had acres of space. And, of course,we hoof-balled ten times to Salford’s one.
But we played well enough to stay in this Division, if we replicate and work on the good things. I have faith in Tommy & Co to see us through the season. Looking for promotion in the next year or two is an entirely different question.

[Spyman]

If so Wright needs to call him out on it, take the captaincy off him and give it to someone more responsible. Set an example.

On the contrary, I'd personally be wary of making too much of an example of him. Styche is our best chance of staying up. He's our biggest goal threat by a mile. Wright said he shouldn't have done it in the PMI. Styche has apologised - the bloke sounds devastated at his lapse in judgement. We don't want him to go into his shell, lose confidence and have the goals dry up.

Styche knows he cocked up. Wright and Styche have both condemned it in public. That's enough for me. Time to draw a line under it.

Ok fair enough - didn't realise the follow-up. I agree Styche is a key player.

Hopefully that very obvious lapse in judgement and the fact both player and manager acknowledged it can be a bit of a watershed moment. A chance for everyone to reflect and say "these stupid mistakes are avoidable and they are what is costing us points".

[Spyman]

I am surprised that losing by one goal after missing a penalty against top of the league and full time Salford City is the breaking point for people.

I think it is more the nature of the defeat than the defeat itself from reading a lot of comments. The problem is every defeat seems to be a 'soft' one - we're losing games where we are matching teams for long periods but we're too vulnerable to silly mistakes and bad decision making and this is resulting in potentially good results becoming bad results and promising performances being frustratingly fruitless.

[al_quaker]

Hopefully that very obvious lapse in judgement and the fact both player and manager acknowledged it can be a bit of a watershed moment. A chance for everyone to reflect and say "these stupid mistakes are avoidable and they are what is costing us points".

Let's hope so.

At least last night we seemed to have learned something about over-committing players forwards. We seemed to be leaving more defenders back at attacking set pieces, and I can't recall a Brown long throw either.

[QUAKERMAN2]

Looks like Collins could be out for a couple of months and a big blow we could do without.TW mentioned Tezz possibly filling in as one of the 3 centre backs so we simply must bring in a replacement at LB if this is the case.We cannot consider Leon to cover that position as he is a solid midfielder as he showed last night, and crazy to even think of our wide midfielders, so we have to bring someone in, if not then we are asking for trouble.

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[MKDarlo]

I am surprised that losing by one goal after missing a penalty against top of the league and full time Salford City is the breaking point for people.

If we don't pick up any points in the next 3 games then I'll change my tune. Alfreton & Leamington should be ripe for getting at least 2 draws against. Our fixture list doesn't really get 'expected' wins until Curzon Ashton & North Ferriby at home though.

it isnt losing v Salford. It is losing. Again and again and again and again. To the same stupid errors.

2 draws v Alfreton and Leamington? ffs! We will be adrift if we only pick up 2 points. we need 6 ( 4 minimum) points out of those games if we want to stay up.

I’m not despondent after last night.
As others have said, we stretched Salford plenty of times and clearly had them rattled.

rattled to the extent we got any points out of the game? No. That's the problem. We need points not good performances and nearly/coulda wons!

But we played well enough to stay in this Division, if we replicate and work on the good things. I have faith in Tommy & Co to see us through the season. Looking for promotion in the next year or two is an entirely different question.

Only if we start to pick up points. We had a point ( at least) there for the taking yesterday............ and chucked it away. Again.

[Darlogramps]

We can slag Martin Gray of as much as we like but he got a better standard of performance out of this group of players than Tommy Wright.

The core of our side is pretty different now to what it was under Martin Gray. Tamworth and Gainsborough were bad results but equally Harrogate at home was a surprisingly good result.

I am surprised that losing by one goal after missing a penalty against top of the league and full time Salford City is the breaking point for people.

If we don't pick up any points in the next 3 games then I'll change my tune. Alfreton & Leamington should be ripe for getting at least 2 draws against. Our fixture list doesn't really get 'expected' wins until Curzon Ashton & North Ferriby at home though.

We need to be getting more than two draws. I'd say getting at least two victories against Alfreton, Chorley or Leamington is essential.

Also on the "core" of our side - who actually comprises it? Wright changes things around so much I don't think we have a solid "core" to the starting XI at all. Styche and possibly Turnbull, although even he's been out of the side.

[Spyman]

Looks like Collins could be out for a couple of months and a big blow we could do without.TW mentioned Tezz possibly filling in as one of the 3 centre backs so we simply must bring in a replacement at LB if this is the case.We cannot consider Leon to cover that position as he is a solid midfielder as he showed last night, and crazy to even think of our wide midfielders, so we have to bring someone in, if not then we are asking for trouble.

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That will be a blow indeed.

If we're going to play with 3 at the back then while I have no issue with Galbraith filling one of those spots, we need a mobile, left-footed wing-back to come in. Galbraith could be a real asset playing on the left of a three as he'll be able to get forward a bit.

Longer term I'd actually look at playing Collins, Heaton and Galbraith as a three with Trotman and AN Other as wing-backs.