New Keeper required ! - and one or two other observations

[StanWebbsGhost]

Knight - Seen him play 4 games now and i'm sorry but he just is'nt up to it. Good effort all round by the lads - plenty of endeavor, was reasonably impressed with Lumsdon and Thorpe, seen enough of Plummer to form an opinion that again looked assured when he came on - think this lad is gonna be in Ian Millers shoes (White/Foster last season)this season ie V Good but won't break Foster/Miller partnership. G Smith - not good enough i'm afraid - poor substitutions by Todd - J Smith and Thorpe deserved to stay on, overall though worth staying behind to clap the lads off - on sheer effort alone !

[KCChiefs]

Smith (G) not good enough ?!! dont know what game you were watching, won plenty of tackles and hardly gave the ball away and a good engine as always..
Lumsden was more impressive than pre-season and the 2 loan lads from Sunderland have to start, thought they were very good - Dowson hopefully can develop an understanding with Thorpe, Kinght ? well maybe at fault for the goal, pulled off some good saves, will have to see how he goes over the next month or two.
If we play like we did tonight we should pick up some points over the next few weeks, Lg2 defences will give us more chances than Leeds did.

[Spyman]

Smith and Lumsdon really look the part in the middle, and Chandler adds that bit of aggression that we were lacking for most of Saturday in midfield. I'd like to see Smith get forward a bit more at the weekend - home game against League 2 opposition, Bury will be the biggest yardstick so far.

[walshys_wingman_11]

Maybe he took Thorpe off because he played on Saturday and will probaly start this Saturday and he wanted to give Main some much needed time on the pitch to get his fitness up. Do you think Thorpe is fit enough to play 3 games in a week nowadays ?

[TinShedDarloFan]

The only complaint i can find tonight is the final third, we didnt ever look like scoring, other than that it was a very comitted performance, the lads can be proud, they fought for every ball and made a real game of it, plus its only there 2nd competitive game together

[DFCAnth]

The midfield we played tonight is better than any we have had in years, fact.

[loan_star]

Gary Smith not good enough? Give your head a shake!!!

[Quakerz]

Fiction.

If this midfield was as good as you claim, we'd have created plenty of chances.

On tonights showing they are presently a decent unit, no more, no less.

[Darlo_Dan]

The midfield we played tonight is better than any we have had in years, fact.

That is a ridiculous comment.

[Spyman]

The midfield we played tonight is better than any we have had in years, fact.

Technically maybe, but last season we pretty much had the complete set:

Ravenhill - tough tackling ball winner
Kennedy - got forward and scored goals
Burgmeier - mean delivery
Purdie - ran at players and beat his man

Tonight's midfield lacked pace and bite, although Lumsdon and both Smiths are good ball-players.

[TinShedDarloFan]

Gary Smith not good enought

[KCChiefs]

What did people think of J Smith ? - i like wingers who can run at people, take a man or 2 on and get a cross in, technically he's good but does'nt take his man on enough for my liking

[Breedon]

Sorry but all Lumsdon did tonight was long ball after long ball. He didn't impress me much. I thought Thorpe and both Smith's did well, Dowson was alright but frustrated me, especially with that disallowed goal, he just didn't need to be offside at all, he had the pace on the defence all ends up, he could have given himself a yard and still motored onto the through ball, but yeah, he was hungry and had a great workrate. Arnison had a good game too. I agree about Knight, he has big fundemental flaws in his game and we cant really have that in goal. All in all a positive though, I turned up almost acceptant of a defeat, I left frustrated we didn't at least force extra time. We should be OK this season, by no means playoffs but certainly not relegation.

[Spyman]

Sorry but all Lumsdon did tonight was long ball after long ball. He didn't impress me much. I thought Thorpe and both Smith's did well, Dowson was alright but frustrated me, especially with that disallowed goal, he just didn't need to be offside at all, he had the pace on the defence all ends up, he could have given himself a yard and still motored onto the through ball, but yeah, he was hungry and had a great workrate. Arnison had a good game too. I agree about Knight, he has big fundemental flaws in his game and we cant really have that in goal. All in all a positive though, I turned up almost acceptant of a defeat, I left frustrated we didn't at least force extra time. We should be OK this season, by no means playoffs but certainly not relegation.

You obviously didn't watch Lumsdon. I lost count of the number of times he picked the ball up under pressure and moved it into space. He's a very good player.

Dowson DID need to be offside - had his run been any later the keeper would've beaten him to the ball anyway.

Lets not base too much on tonight's performance, as the lads will have no doubt been gee'd up being on Sky against a 'big club'. Full credit though, if they can reproduce that level of performance regularly we'll do ok.

[quaker4life]

The only complaint i can find tonight is the final third, we didnt ever look like scoring, other than that it was a very comitted performance, the lads can be proud, they fought for every ball and made a real game of it, plus its only there 2nd competitive game together

My thoughts exactly TSDF, we were very light up front maybe we could have been a little bit braver going forward. But there was more positives than negatives tonight, I thought our defence looked very solid Miller and Fozzie linked up well and both were very solid, I was also impressed with Arnison tonight he won a few tackles and very little got past him.

At times I thought we played some good passing football and I thought both sides were evenly matched in the first half I can recall very few chances. The difference in quality really began to show in the second half Leeds always looked more threatening going forward and were always the most likely to score.

CT, Windass and the lads can give themselves a pat on the back tonight a very solid display against a near full strength Leeds side who will no doubt be challenging for promotion in L1. I have to say I was slightly disappointed by the attendance tonight which was below 5,000 but I suppose the fact it was a monday night and the game was on TV was a factor.

Overall a very encouraging performance tonight, well done lads!

[JerseyDarlo]

Are you a goldfish?

Its stupid to compare this (good) team we have built on a tiny budget with loans and frees to the team we had last season that had quality players but ones that we just cant afford to keep.

The fact that Todd has managed to get together a group of lads that after only two games together would make you even think of comparing them to our seasoned team from last season should prove to you that we are in a good position. Last season we were pating league 1 players over the odds to play in league 2..... This season we have the basis of a good league 2 side.

You can moan and shout about needing to sign several better player and say people are not good enough but unless you are a goldfish you might want to pull your neck in and remember the last few months of hell!

Steady team... mid table finish.... club survival... yes thankyou very much!

[The Tees Mouth]

Smith (G) not good enough ?!! dont know what game you were watching, won plenty of tackles and hardly gave the ball away and a good engine as always..
Lumsden was more impressive than pre-season and the 2 loan lads from Sunderland have to start, thought they were very good - Dowson hopefully can develop an understanding with Thorpe, Kinght ? well maybe at fault for the goal, pulled off some good saves, will have to see how he goes over the next month or two.
If we play like we did tonight we should pick up some points over the next few weeks, Lg2 defences will give us more chances than Leeds did.

what good saves might they have been because you have lost me. He looks out of his depth.

[KCChiefs]

Watch the game back - there are some, but i am not convinced, give the guy chance tho, a few games with a regular back four and his confidence may start to grow.

[Beano]

We simply have not seen anywhere near enough to proclaim or condemn any players yet.

For me, Lumsdon and Dowson are promising, Knight is lacking a bit of confidence and Foster is not close to full fitness.

I'd be tempted to play Plummer whilst Foster gets his fitness right, I'd loathe to lose him by rushing him back, as integral as he is.

Knight needs time to gel with his defence and settle into regular first team football, which he has never experienced over a sustained period. Once that happens he will grow in confidence and stature and we'll see what he is really made of, lets not write him off after 180 minutes.

[loan_star]

If we dont have a reserve team again then the only way Foster will get fit is by playing for the 1st team.

[ysj_quaker]

Knight - Seen him play 4 games now and i'm sorry but he just is'nt up to it. Good effort all round by the lads - plenty of endeavor, was reasonably impressed with Lumsdon and Thorpe, seen enough of Plummer to form an opinion that again looked assured when he came on - think this lad is gonna be in Ian Millers shoes (White/Foster last season)this season ie V Good but won't break Foster/Miller partnership. G Smith - not good enough i'm afraid - poor substitutions by Todd - J Smith and Thorpe deserved to stay on, overall though worth staying behind to clap the lads off - on sheer effort alone !

Not even read the rest of the thread so could be repeating here.... Watched the game on tele in york and to be honest thought it was a very good performance, knight looked steady apart from the long range volley he spilled, yes he may have claimed the cross for the goal but hey s*** happens! G Smith for me was very good, as were the whole of the midfield and think they will do well in the league as long as they stay fit! Yes Thorpe played well, won almost everything in the air but thought he got subbed off to keep him fit for the league and because of the punch in the face. Overall good performance and very encouraging!

[fat tony]

knight looked steady apart from the long range volley he spilled, yes he may have claimed the cross for the goal but hey s*** happens!

s*** also happened on Saturday and in the friendlies though

Knight is a concern for me now. He needs to man the fuck up in that penalty box and start making every ball his.

[Darlo_Rob]

I was quite impressed with the overall performance tonight. I thought the defence was pretty solid and although I have my own doubts about Knight he had a solid enough game tonight. He made a few good saves and thought Bower was equally at fault for the goal, but like others have said Knight should have done better as well.

Thought Arnison was the weakest of the defence but that might be because most of the good things Leeds did, especially in the first half, went down his side.

Lumsden was man of the match for me, broke up a lot of the play got stuck in and released the ball when he could, although a little over reliance on the long ball at times. Two Smiths were steady away and Chandler looks a decent player. Thorpe was superb in the air tonight and he looks like he has quite a good touch. Pity he didn't wallop his chance in the first half though. Dowson could and should cause league 2 defences quite a bit of trouble.

Overall more positives than negatives. I just hope the reason (and I'm sure it is) we were a little one dimensional i.e. the long ball to Thorpe was purely down to the fact we were trying to contain Leeds defensively so much. On the few occasions we did try to play some football we looked quite good at it.

If we could replicate this performance over the next 5-6 matches we won't lose many, after which we should be able to kick on a bit.

[StevieMardenboro]

You also have to ask yourself how well would our first team last year have done against that Leeds side. I reckon we would still have lost - as we did in the JPT in 2007.
Given the time and money constraints on Todd he has done a brilliant job pulling a side together.
Good performances tonight from Miller, Bower, Lumsden and Thorpe. The Sunderland youngsters looked very lively and both Smiths showed some nice touches but didn't make as much of an impact in the final third as I would have hoped. Nice to see Curtis Main get a run out aswell.
When you think the budget is around a third of what it was last year and that the club has only just come out of administration, we are fairly well placed to compete this season and certainly a lot better off than we could have hoped for. I felt the players did Darlo proud in front of national tv. Bring on Bury . . . .

[Beano]

If we dont have a reserve team again then the only way Foster will get fit is by playing for the 1st team.

Completely forgot they disbanded the reserves.

I don't blame Todd for picking him or him for wanting to play, I'd just hate to have another Abbott situation with Foster.

[Trike]

having gone last night and seen darlo play for the first time in a long while i was quite impressedand a little concerned.
seems a fairly good team that once gelled will hold there own.
Knight seemed ok but made a huge mistake which cost the goal how many can he be allowed to make??
the midfied didnt seem to want to beat there man down the wing and this was due to no-one in the box at times.
looking forward to bury and more improvements

[quaker_olly]

Just watched the game again this morning on sky, overall I reckon it was a pretty tidy performance as a unit, kept the ball well in places, did the basics right and got at Leeds when they wanted touches on the ball, frustrated them I thought, work rate was fantastic.

Knight needs to be claiming every ball in that area, didnt look committed enough to win the ball in the manor he came out and flapped the volley, but did well to get his body in the way of the rebound I thought. Reckon we could look for a keeper on loan to be pushing Knight further and maybe take the reigns till Knight has got the mitakes out of his game.

Defensivley I thought we looked pretty solid, Fozzie tired towards the end but thought Arnison and Bower did well, kept it simple, and offered support going forward. The midfeild looked up for it, closing Leeds down and not giving them time.

Upfront, never looked like having that cutting edge to worry Leeds. Can only remember one flick on Thorpe failed to win! Dowson is still learnin in terms of his movement and timing of runs but Im sure a couple of games playing together the two will click.

All in all, encouraged by the performance after the result at Aldershot and the miserable pre-season, its always gonna take time for a new set of players to click and I think a loan signing or two could make a big difference. Well impressed with the kit after seeing it in the flesh too!

Howay the lads!

[aveda]

Last night was my first look at the new team. Overall I thought we did fairly well and there were more positives than negatives. The only areas that concerned me were the keeper (though he did knock around a higher level long enough to suggest that he must have some ability and may improve with confidence); the two full backs (who I thought both got caught out of position too many times); and the lack of width (the full backs tucked in too much, the wide players didn't get wide enough or up and down enough, and the central midfield often had a lack of options to spread the play).

Having said that, I thought there was much to be optimistic about. Most of the new lads looked decent and, when they all get used to each other's play and Todd signs another one or two on loan to challenge for places, then, with the luck you need to do anything, I think we should be looking to a top half finish, with an outside chance of scraping into the play offs. I'd settle for that.

[divas]

Last night was my first look at the new team. Overall I thought we did fairly well and there were more positives than negatives. The only areas that concerned me were the keeper (though he did knock around a higher level long enough to suggest that he must have some ability and may improve with confidence); the two full backs (who I thought both got caught out of position too many times); and the lack of width (the full backs tucked in too much, the wide players didn't get wide enough or up and down enough, and the central midfield often had a lack of options to spread the play).

comes from playing a central midfielder at right wing and a centre back at left back i suppose, altho we didnt look to get it wide left to the natural winger in smith often enough imo, going forward we looked much better when we went 4-3-3 however we really struggled at full back with Leeds pressing us with winger & full back.

could really do with a proper right winger at some point as you could tell chandler was a lot more suited to an industrious central role.

[aveda]

Just read the Echo report. Are the players ratings picked out of a hat ? Grella got 6, I thought he was excellent and was pleased to see him go off. Showunmi got 7, which was their highest score and, other than the goal, I thought he was a bit of a plank. Most of our players scored higher than theirs which wasn't really a reflection of the game.