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Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 7:22 pm
by 50 years
Just back from the game.

I can only say disappointed, but a point is a point.

Styche scored a great goal and did some good defending, Tom Portus had good game, (MOM for me), besides that not a great deal to highlight out of any of the others, two poor teams on show today, (and not in any way like the previous few games), and on that showing and if they maintain that standard may be that we are in our correct position in the league?

No one in the team but Styche looks likely to score or even dangerous (in fact during the season only Syres for me has looked dangerous in front of goal).

The worry is that we have some good players and some good tackling put in, but at times look like headless chickens when defending with little being offered in midfield today. Alfreton were a poor team but in the second half they had plenty of space in midfield to pass to feet where we just seemed to do hit and hope, with many of our throw ins going straight to the head of Alfreton players! So always seeing the ball come back to our half as they won most of the second balls. On free kicks we had numerious balls going to the back post but all the players had piled into the middle of the goal which tends to suggest that we need someone to be thinking rather than just charging in.

Saying all that, while Alfreton had plenty of shots at goal, (something again we didn't do, but used to last season), I never felt that we we in serious trouble until whatever happend with the keeper.

You can see the team just lacks any confidence as this was a game they were well capable of winning, and we have a difficult game next week as Chorley slaughterred us at their place earlier in the season (under MG), so some "belief building" is required during the week.

Still hope springs eternal and with just a bit of luck, (and we have none at the moment), and the team starting to believe in themselves and the whole team being in for the fight we can pull this off.

"Up the Quakers"

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 7:45 pm
by Darlobaz79
Just back from the game, only the third time I have seen us play under TW but I have hope! It should have been 3 points today definitely, Alfreton rarely threatened and were very poor. Styche needs a partner its plain as day. Mills isn't the answer in that department although he was ok today. Got to have a mention for two players who haven't always played in Scott and Portas, probably our two best players today.

I didn't think for a minute we were going to anything else but win. Final thing is the ref, bottled a red in the first 10 seconds and consistently nitpicked including booking Brown for a great challenge in the first half. There weren't that many bad challenges in comparison to the bookings!

Anyway, I still think we will survive.

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 8:26 pm
by gabbas
Wasn’t at the game today but don’t understand criticism of not having keeper on bench. Even if we did scoreline would have been the same. Chances are a penalty is scored .

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 8:27 pm
by loan_star
gabbas wrote:Wasn’t at the game today but don’t understand criticism of not having keeper on bench. Even if we did scoreline would have been the same. Chances are a penalty is scored .
Exactly, a penalty is a lottery no matter who is in goal.

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 8:29 pm
by gabbas
Just another point. My personal opinion on managers getting the he boot is when they have lost dressing room. I don’t think tommy has soon let’s stick but him for time being.

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 8:29 pm
by real_darlo_85
gabbas wrote:Wasn’t at the game today but don’t understand criticism of not having keeper on bench. Even if we did scoreline would have been the same. Chances are a penalty is scored .
The point is if this happens in the first 10 mins, you are more than likely to concede more goals as keeping is a specialized position.

We were lucky it was inside the 90th minute, as 0-1 could quite easily have become 2-1 never mind scraping a 1-1 draw!

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 8:42 pm
by tdk1
We have had tw in charge long enough to establish something recognisable as form now, and based on our current rate we are on track to pick up 8 (eight) more points this season, giving us a grand total of 34.

I'm honestly not sure he has even found the dressing room yet, let alone lost it.

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 9:13 pm
by Vodka_Vic
QUAKERMAN2 wrote:It can only happen to us, when does a keeper kick someone, gets sent off and gives away a pen in the 90th main.TW now needs to sign a keeper but surely needs to sign someone up front with Styche as we had no threat in the 2nd half and the ball was just coming back on the defence.More points dropped, we surely have to strengthen before next week.

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Someone on the Tin Shed posted that Tamworth have accepted a bid from us for Ellis Deeney.
The Birmingham Mail reported on Wednesday that "Transfer listed Ellis Deeney has had a bid from a fellow NLN club accepted".
Someone else either on here or the Tin Shed posted that Marrs has had a transfer go through so there may be some movement.

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 9:30 pm
by grimsbyquaker
Excellent interview with Ray I thought. Now Home and with dust settling I feel we can take some positives from today although at final whistle you could sense the despondency in the away end. Can’t disagree with TW’s assessment of the game

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 10:42 pm
by LoidLucan
There's no getting away from the fact that we have just drawn what was pretty much a must win game against one of the worst teams in this division who had lost their last six at home. TW can be as "relaxed" as he likes about our alarming plunge towards relegation but he now needs to deliver. Chorley, I suspect, will hammer another nail into this.

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 10:43 pm
by gabbas
real_darlo_85 wrote:
gabbas wrote:Wasn’t at the game today but don’t understand criticism of not having keeper on bench. Even if we did scoreline would have been the same. Chances are a penalty is scored .
The point is if this happens in the first 10 mins, you are more than likely to concede more goals as keeping is a specialized position.

We were lucky it was inside the 90th minute, as 0-1 could quite easily have become 2-1 never mind scraping a 1-1 draw!
But it didn’t

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 11:24 pm
by OHDFC
As an exile I don't get to many games so can only go on the radio, reports and social media (including this message board) but it seems that Wright can't win - no pun intended.
People have been crying out for us to tighten up and grind out results and it seems that is what we did today. Had we gone for it in second half missed chances and conceded a break away goal Wright would have been hammered. But it seems he's now being hammered for doing what we wanted.
As has been said on other threads we need a few ugly wins and from the radio that's exactly what we were doing today.

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Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 11:25 pm
by QUAKERMAN2
grimsbyquaker wrote:Excellent interview with Ray I thought. Now Home and with dust settling I feel we can take some positives from today although at final whistle you could sense the despondency in the away end. Can’t disagree with TW’s assessment of the game
The big problem for Tommy is that he has about 4 or 5 players not good enough and would like to offload but Gray gave them good contracts and will be difficult to move on.He has brought in some good players although Mills I have doubts about,and this new signing does seem a good solid midfielder that we need at the moment.If we can bring in a good partner for Styche I will be much more confident we will climb up this league.

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Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 11:29 pm
by Darlogramps
LoidLucan wrote:There's no getting away from the fact that we have just drawn what was pretty much a must win game against one of the worst teams in this division who had lost their last six at home. TW can be as "relaxed" as he likes about our alarming plunge towards relegation but he now needs to deliver. Chorley, I suspect, will hammer another nail into this.
Exactly this. How many more times are we going to "take a lot of positives out of the game" instead of taking a lot of points? That won't keep us up. There's too much talk of what we might be, rather than looking at our problems right now.

I was at the game and so wanted Tommy to shut me up with a win. But once again, with the same fragility we've shown time and time again, we chucked away two points against one of the worst teams in the league. I was frustrated at our inability to be ruthless against opposition we need to be coming out on top against.

In the last three games we've chucked away at least four points.

It doesn't matter if we can take any positives or whatever. We're not picking up enough points. Now we're a point from safety and teams around us have games in hand. Our only win under Wright came against nine men when we had two penalties.

Our manager claims he's very relaxed. How relaxed would he be if Styche got injured or suspended? We are essentially a one man team.

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 12:06 am
by Darlogramps
OHDFC wrote:As an exile I don't get to many games so can only go on the radio, reports and social media (including this message board) but it seems that Wright can't win - no pun intended.
People have been crying out for us to tighten up and grind out results and it seems that is what we did today. Had we gone for it in second half missed chances and conceded a break away goal Wright would have been hammered. But it seems he's now being hammered for doing what we wanted.
As has been said on other threads we need a few ugly wins and from the radio that's exactly what we were doing today.

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I don't agree. He's being hammered for his record overall - 1 win in 11, his tactical naivety, taking too long to work out his best XI or tactics and our team's worrying fragility.

And he's taken a mid-table side into the relegation zone, where other sides now have games in hand on us.

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 12:59 am
by AndyPark
All these fans blaming Tommy for a young GKs error.

From what I’ve read. We were comfortable at 1-0 and would have seen the game out before Talbot kicked out.

Get back under your rocks. We are improving and I’m more than confident we will STAY UP.

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 8:47 am
by loan_star
Darlogramps wrote:
LoidLucan wrote:There's no getting away from the fact that we have just drawn what was pretty much a must win game against one of the worst teams in this division who had lost their last six at home. TW can be as "relaxed" as he likes about our alarming plunge towards relegation but he now needs to deliver. Chorley, I suspect, will hammer another nail into this.
Exactly this. How many more times are we going to "take a lot of positives out of the game" instead of taking a lot of points? That won't keep us up. There's too much talk of what we might be, rather than looking at our problems right now.

I was at the game and so wanted Tommy to shut me up with a win. But once again, with the same fragility we've shown time and time again, we chucked away two points against one of the worst teams in the league. I was frustrated at our inability to be ruthless against opposition we need to be coming out on top against.

In the last three games we've chucked away at least four points.

It doesn't matter if we can take any positives or whatever. We're not picking up enough points. Now we're a point from safety and teams around us have games in hand. Our only win under Wright came against nine men when we had two penalties.

Our manager claims he's very relaxed. How relaxed would he be if Styche got injured or suspended? We are essentially a one man team.
I didn’t think we looked fragile at all, we were containing them and didn’t really look like conceding until the penalty. As has been said elsewhere had we just bombed on looking for more goals then Wright would have been hammered for that too.
My only gripe, other than the abysmal refereeing, was that when Harvey came on we stopped hitting the channels like we did for Mills yet Harvey would have loved through balls like that.

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 9:34 am
by theoriginalfatcat
AndyPark wrote:All these fans blaming Tommy for a young GKs error.

From what I’ve read. We were comfortable at 1-0 and would have seen the game out before Talbot kicked out.

Get back under your rocks. We are improving and I’m more than confident we will STAY UP.

Agree. The Wright bashers say things like ' it doesn't matter how we play, all that matters is the points' but then unfairly criticise wright (above) by saying we only beat Harrogate when they had 2 men red carded! We won that game, Harrogate got their red cards because WE forced them into reckless tackles by playing well. And as for yesterday, as Andy says, we would have ground out a win if not for a young players lapse of judgement.

We certainly don't seem to be getting much luck flowing our way at present.

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 9:43 am
by theoriginalfatcat
real_darlo_85 wrote:
gabbas wrote:Wasn’t at the game today but don’t understand criticism of not having keeper on bench. Even if we did scoreline would have been the same. Chances are a penalty is scored .
The point is if this happens in the first 10 mins, you are more than likely to concede more goals as keeping is a specialized position.

We were lucky it was inside the 90th minute, as 0-1 could quite easily have become 2-1 never mind scraping a 1-1 draw!

Exactly, and I would go further, if it happens at any time in the first half - you are virtually guaranteed to lose the game. Goalies can get injured as well as getting sent off.

I can remember at least 5 occasions when Darlo have been caught out with no sub goalie, and I think on only one occasion did we win the game.

Mr Carl Shutt!

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 9:44 am
by en passant
I did wonder in both this and the Salford game if bringing Syers on instead of Harvey might have packed the midfield more whilst still offering something of a goal threat at set plays. When hanging on against Salford and being fragile when in winning positions in recent games, it may have been better to play a more circumspect strategy, although it is beginning to feel like whatever we do the luck never seems to fall our way.

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 9:51 am
by real_darlo_85
gabbas wrote:
real_darlo_85 wrote:
gabbas wrote:Wasn’t at the game today but don’t understand criticism of not having keeper on bench. Even if we did scoreline would have been the same. Chances are a penalty is scored .
The point is if this happens in the first 10 mins, you are more than likely to concede more goals as keeping is a specialized position.

We were lucky it was inside the 90th minute, as 0-1 could quite easily have become 2-1 never mind scraping a 1-1 draw!
But it didn’t
It didn't but it's a very risky tactic and if it does happen (either a red card or injury early in a match) and we don't have a gk on the bench then don't say this wasn't a warning. As people have mentioned we are not having luck on our side at the moment and in our position we can't afford to drop points unnecessarily - simple!

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 10:14 am
by Darlogramps
AndyPark wrote:All these fans blaming Tommy for a young GKs error.

From what I’ve read. We were comfortable at 1-0 and would have seen the game out before Talbot kicked out.

Get back under your rocks. We are improving and I’m more than confident we will STAY UP.
Considering you hang around with people who chant about paedophilia, I think you know who's better off getting back under their rocks.

"From what I've read..." so you weren't there. I was at the game and felt on edge. I didn't think it was comfortable at 1-0. There was that fragility that meant we were never far away from conceding a goal. And so it proved.

No one is blaming Wright for Talbot's mistake. But these individual errors are accumulating and proving costly. Talbot, Styche's missed penalty, and plenty of others in his three months in charge. Are ALL these individual errors not symptomatic of poor management?

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 10:27 am
by Darlogramps
theoriginalfatcat wrote:

Agree. The Wright bashers say things like ' it doesn't matter how we play, all that matters is the points' but then unfairly criticise wright (above) by saying we only beat Harrogate when they had 2 men red carded! We won that game, Harrogate got their red cards because WE forced them into reckless tackles by playing well. And as for yesterday, as Andy says, we would have ground out a win if not for a young players lapse of judgement.

We certainly don't seem to be getting much luck flowing our way at present.
Hang on - you can't have it both ways.

You can't say when we win a match, it's because we forced a team into bad mistakes, but when we lose it's because of bad luck and self-inflicted errors.

By your logic surely we're losing games and points because other teams are forcing us repeatedly into mistakes. Why? Because we're not dealing with their tactics well enough. And responsibility for that ultimately lies with the manager.

And to describe Talbot's red card as bad luck is nonsense. It was a rash decision by him (he admits this himself on Twitter).

Neither is the Styche penalty v Salford bad luck, or the majority of the goals we've conceded. It's poor play, decision-making or just simply not being good enough. Ultimately yesterday was a massive missed opportunity against poor opposition.

As I said earlier, the Wright supporters (and the man himself) have to stop talking about where we might end up, and look at where we are now.

"If we take the positives into our next game we can win"
"If Talbot hadn't got sent off we'd have won"
"I think we're improving and start winning soon."

It doesn't matter. We're in the relegation zone, and sides around us have games in hand. We're reliant on one man and have an unconvincing manager with a poor record. Wright still doesn't give me the confidence he'll turn this around. Watching his interview was concerning, as if he's not fully grasped the situation. I'm surprised he feels very relaxed about being in the drop zone and on a run of 5 points from 10 games.

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 10:34 am
by Vodka_Vic
We were all saying yesterday that we needed a second goal because one moment when you're one goal ahead can stop you winning as happened yesterday.

We have been more solid yesterday, and glass half full says that in our recent five games, our record is 1-1-3 and with more luck could have been 1-3-1. We have had one poor half at Harrogate. TW said after the game that having got more solid then the next progression is to start winning games. He says that wins will come. He is saying this in expectation rather than hope.

Glass half empty says that TW says this in hope rather than expectation, that we have played more solidly but other teams have picked up results while we haven't, and that because the league is more quality this year then being solid is not enough, you need a bit extra to pick up points. At the moment I really don't know which camp I'm in. Fail to win next week v Chorley and I really think I'll be firmly in the latter camp.

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 10:37 am
by real_darlo_85
Darlogramps wrote:
AndyPark wrote:All these fans blaming Tommy for a young GKs error.

From what I’ve read. We were comfortable at 1-0 and would have seen the game out before Talbot kicked out.

Get back under your rocks. We are improving and I’m more than confident we will STAY UP.
Considering you hang around with people who chant about paedophilia, I think you know who's better off getting back under their rocks.

"From what I've read..." so you weren't there. I was at the game and felt on edge. I didn't think it was comfortable at 1-0. There was that fragility that meant we were never far away from conceding a goal. And so it proved.

No one is blaming Wright for Talbot's mistake. But these individual errors are accumulating and proving costly. Talbot, Styche's missed penalty, and plenty of others in his three months in charge. Are ALL these individual errors not symptomatic of poor management?
The amount of times he has berated the club after recent defeats on Twitter, you don't know which Andy Park is going to turn up now! Lol

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 10:47 am
by tdk1
Vodka_Vic wrote:We were all saying yesterday that we needed a second goal because one moment when you're one goal ahead can stop you winning as happened yesterday.

We have been more solid yesterday, and glass half full says that in our recent five games, our record is 1-1-3 and with more luck could have been 1-3-1. We have had one poor half at Harrogate. TW said after the game that having got more solid then the next progression is to start winning games. He says that wins will come. He is saying this in expectation rather than hope.

Glass half empty says that TW says this in hope rather than expectation, that we have played more solidly but other teams have picked up results while we haven't, and that because the league is more quality this year then being solid is not enough, you need a bit extra to pick up points. At the moment I really don't know which camp I'm in. Fail to win next week v Chorley and I really think I'll be firmly in the latter camp.
The thing is, we looked relatively solid yesterday for two reasons.

One, we had reverted to a four at the back, two weeks after tw said we were settled on 343 as a formation.

Two, and this is an important point people seem to be missing, alfreton were AWFUL. I mean genuinely atrocious. We still let them have chances in the six yard box, had defenders yelling at each other, mix ups. We looked moderately solid against one of the worst teams I have ever seen.

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 10:52 am
by QUAKERMAN2
If we sign the young lad Deeley from Tamworth and Trotman comes back from injury, I wonder if we will go 352 or stick with 433.Either way Portas has to come back into midfield and IF we could get a good partner alongside Styche I would feel a whole lot more optimistic we will climb up the league.Glass half full for me.

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Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 12:18 pm
by Beano
theoriginalfatcat wrote:
real_darlo_85 wrote:
gabbas wrote:Wasn’t at the game today but don’t understand criticism of not having keeper on bench. Even if we did scoreline would have been the same. Chances are a penalty is scored .
The point is if this happens in the first 10 mins, you are more than likely to concede more goals as keeping is a specialized position.

We were lucky it was inside the 90th minute, as 0-1 could quite easily have become 2-1 never mind scraping a 1-1 draw!

Exactly, and I would go further, if it happens at any time in the first half - you are virtually guaranteed to lose the game. Goalies can get injured as well as getting sent off.

I can remember at least 5 occasions when Darlo have been caught out with no sub goalie, and I think on only one occasion did we win the game.

Mr Carl Shutt!
In the 20+ years I’ve regularly attended faves, I’ve seen us use a sub goalkeeper only a handful of times. At this level, we don’t have the budget for two top goalkeepers.

Even today, putting Brown in goal cost us no points.

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 12:39 pm
by theoriginalfatcat
Darlogramps wrote:
theoriginalfatcat wrote:

Agree. The Wright bashers say things like ' it doesn't matter how we play, all that matters is the points' but then unfairly criticise wright (above) by saying we only beat Harrogate when they had 2 men red carded! We won that game, Harrogate got their red cards because WE forced them into reckless tackles by playing well. And as for yesterday, as Andy says, we would have ground out a win if not for a young players lapse of judgement.

We certainly don't seem to be getting much luck flowing our way at present.
Hang on - you can't have it both ways.

You can't say when we win a match, it's because we forced a team into bad mistakes, but when we lose it's because of bad luck and self-inflicted errors.

By your logic surely we're losing games and points because other teams are forcing us repeatedly into mistakes. Why? Because we're not dealing with their tactics well enough. And responsibility for that ultimately lies with the manager.

And to describe Talbot's red card as bad luck is nonsense. It was a rash decision by him (he admits this himself on Twitter).

Neither is the Styche penalty v Salford bad luck, or the majority of the goals we've conceded. It's poor play, decision-making or just simply not being good enough. Ultimately yesterday was a massive missed opportunity against poor opposition.

As I said earlier, the Wright supporters (and the man himself) have to stop talking about where we might end up, and look at where we are now.

"If we take the positives into our next game we can win"
"If Talbot hadn't got sent off we'd have won"
"I think we're improving and start winning soon."

It doesn't matter. We're in the relegation zone, and sides around us have games in hand. We're reliant on one man and have an unconvincing manager with a poor record. Wright still doesn't give me the confidence he'll turn this around. Watching his interview was concerning, as if he's not fully grasped the situation. I'm surprised he feels very relaxed about being in the drop zone and on a run of 5 points from 10 games.


Hmmmm. By illustrating the fact that some people want it both ways I have possibly done the same thing - to work the other way round.

But you see further back in this thread you wrote "Our only win under Wright came against nine men when we had two penalties." and I take objection to this as we were the better team that day and deserved to win, and as said previously, forcing Harrogate into errors! At least give Wright credit for that win.You criticise him whatever.

Re: Alfreton V Darlington FC

Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 12:49 pm
by Darlogramps
No you're right - we played well that day and deserved to win. I wasn't insinuating that it was a lesser performance (which is how I think you've interpreted it).

But it's not unfair to point out Harrogate only had nine men by the end. We should be beating a side with only nine men, particularly if we had two penalties. I don't think anyone would dispute that.

If you think I'm overly critical now, imagine what I'd be like if we hadn't won that game!