Darlington V Leamington

[Darlopartisan]

Last game of, ‘the season to forget ‘ no idea which team will turn up, with Kneeshaw and Palmer crocked probably the same starting 11 from the Guiseley farce.
Weather forecast looks bleak, quite apt really.
Attendance 1200 at best

[jjlewis1k89]

Hopefully TW’s leaving party


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[poppyfield]

Apathy that's the word for this game , we need something to look forward to, we need a reason to get those season ticket sales going, we need a reason to look forward to next season. And quite honestly if TW is allowed another season after this inept display of recruitment, game strategy and basically not learning from mistakes made, well apathy won't creep in, it will cascade.

[HarrytheQuaker]

Hope we get at least 1300 to give the lads a summer send off

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[50 years]

My mate is bringing a couple of the family to the game, one a first timer and the other the very odd time visiter, but they have never seen us lose so may be a good omen. May even go in the tin shed to sing myself. Just need to enjoy the last game.

We have fair few who just want the season to end, but we are not the only ones, talking to a couple York City fans tkday and the words used were "thank God it is the last one" 're Saturday's game and they have had 3 managers this season, full time and have splashed the cash on players so we are not the only ones.

Me I will miss the games, even tbough not a good year.

"Up the Quakers"

[darlo reborn]

the tin shed might be full as the forecast not good and no cover anywhere else

[jjljks]

Think we may just get over 1000 as Leamington won't bring many and weather will put off the faint hearted. Down to the hard core, diehard fans who would love to see the lads finish with some flowing football and plenty of goals (so long as we keep a clean sheet!)

[Darlo_Pete]

The weather forecast looks terrible, so we'll be lucky to see 1000 tomorrow.

[Darlopartisan]

Well TWs departure certainly puts a different element into the mix, are the players going to bust a gut to give him a winning send off , or be down hearted because he’s going, trickey one.

[LoidLucan]

I wonder if Jake Turner is part of the Bolton players strike over non-payment of wages. It's been a tough time for them.

[Darlo_Pete]

I hope Jake will turn out for us, I'd be surprised if he didn't. Our young keeper should be on the bench today, let's hope the events of the last few days don't stop him getting his chance.

[theoriginalfatcat]

The weather forecast looks terrible, so we'll be lucky to see 1000 tomorrow.

“Light rain showers and moderate breeze” from the BBC.

[PierremontQuaker03]

I hope Jake will turn out for us, I'd be surprised if he didn't. Our young keeper should be on the bench today, let's hope the events of the last few days don't stop him getting his chance.

I would be surprised if Jake didn't play, he needs to look after himself now and make sure he secures a contract away from Bolton, by not playing you are shooting yourself in the foot.

[real_darlo_85]

Well today's match seemed to sum up the season to an extent, although it was the first and last I have attended this season - ironically the last match I attended was Tommy's first match Vs Brackley last season!

Started the game a little uneasy with some misplaced passing letting Leamington in on a couple of occasions but we steadily grew into the game, with Saunders and Nicholson having some close attempts and Trotman hitting the side netting. I think we deserved the goal when it came and very well taken by Nicholson. Into the second half, we seemed to lose our shape for a time when Galbraith went off but again probably had enough chances to grab a second, Thommo probably with the best with a good save made by the keeper (who seemed to really enjoy playing his football with numerous showboating and pingged passes!). As for the majority of this season we have been vulnerable at the back and so it proved with a Leamington goal coming when we were overstretched defensively. Overall a 1-1 draw was probably just about fair.

Just from the one match it seems we were trying to be a bit too precise and perfect with our build up play in the final third, maybe neglecting the more simple passes when opportunities were on. I agree that with Thommo, Nicholson, Omar, Galbraith (until injured) and Trotman that would be a good starting point for the new management coming in. In Ainge we do have a potentially strong CB if he can be convinced to revert to that role longer term and stay injury free. However the remainder of the squad will be built on whatever budget can be raised and it is likely that new loanees will be brought in to bolster the squad (I did like the look of Turner in goal mind!). I wish Tommy Wright all the best in whatever the future holds and although it didn't work out for him as manager of the club, he will always be held in high regard for his loyalty to the club as a player and his efforts over the past 18 months.

One other positive was it was my 4 year old son's debut match watching Darlo and despite the cold and rainy conditions, he really enjoyed his experience and so it may be that there'll be at least one new supporter adding to the attendances when we can attend next season! All the best and good health to all until next season!

[HarrytheQuaker]

Just over 4000 at Nuneaton today 3500 Stockport fans turned up , wish we had them last game of the season to boost the coffers ... Great support for the champions

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[LoidLucan]

There was visible evidence at the match today of some of the reasons why we arrived at this point. Sat in the seats of the clubhouse side were some of TW's big summer signings that were meant to help form the basis of taking the club forward... Maddison, Burn and Henshall. On the pitch his centre forward was playing at CB and Liam Hughes was sat on the bench at his new club Gainsborough while great young hope Glover was on the bench for Kidsgrove and destined not be be seen here again. O'Hanlon, who was finding the onerous travelling too much and whose form had nosedived, was playing on loan with Hednesford and is now gone.

Last summer was supposed to be the big rebuild, setting us up to move forward with a concentrated, quality squad and yet here we are again facing a major summer rebuild.

[grimsbyquaker]

Yet he’s generated £170k in transfer business, had to sell our prize asset CF and midfielder, seen two of his team represent their country, do a mid-season rebuild with loans...he steers us 15 points clear of the drop and, oh yeah, sets up an academy for the good of the club rather than himself as was the case with the previous incumbent. For me this negates the mistakes Re recruitment last summer. With the constraints we work under and the lack of any assets to attract outside investment I would like to know what those who were so eager to see TW axed would see as a realistic long term ambition

[JE93]

Yet he’s generated £170k in transfer business, had to sell our prize asset CF and midfielder, seen two of his team represent their country, do a mid-season rebuild with loans...he steers us 15 points clear of the drop and, oh yeah, sets up an academy for the good of the club rather than himself as was the case with the previous incumbent. For me this negates the mistakes Re recruitment last summer. With the constraints we work under and the lack of any assets to attract outside investment I would like to know what those who were so eager to see TW axed would see as a realistic long term ambition

If you want to break that down though. Of the 170k of players sold. 70k of that was gray taking players with him and Beck to Harrogate. Sceptics could argue that the amount we got for Heaton (a player who gray identified and brought in but couldn't sign due to injury). Then there will be money from the loss of Turnbull and Gillies who a fair amount of fans would say were the wrong decisions given. So he gets credit for selling styche. Who was a salable asset because we bought him for 20-30k the previous season. (Also note he makes no mention of the amount of transfer fees he spent against that income. Styche, trotman, ainge were all signed for fees so it's not like he wasn't supported.

As for losing syers. His record up until his departure was 5 starts and 8 sub appearances. Hardly the starting record of a managers talisman (for me syers was under used and always got us goals when we played in that 4-2-3-1 formation).

He had to sell players partly down to his inability to organise a defensive unit which saw us lose too many games early season with a whimper. Which also had a knock in effect on attendances (there is also some over budgeting from the top in there which is not Tommy's fault). This lead to losing 1 key player in styche. Tommy did use the loan market fairly well after that. But the loan market was always there? He backed underperforming players for too long which sent us down into a bottom of the table scrap.

We finished 15 points clear of relegation. But not having been mid table all season and then slipped away when there was nothing to play for. No we have scrapped at the bottom for most of the season with teams who's budgets are about half ours. (Ask an FC United fan, their budgets are agreed at their AGM think the playing side for £150k for this season. Which is evo stick levels. I'd expect to be well clear of that).

Again the two players representing their country. Wheatley was a Gray player. So he has trotman who to be fair to Tommy has been a great signing.

He deserves credit for the academy set up. But it was also in his job remit so I expect him to do it. But he has made good work of it.

What do I expect from the next manager? I want someone who understands this is a defensive league. Look at the league table I bet the top 6 pretty much reads in goals conceded order. If you have a good shape in this league and you're hard to break down with one or two players who can score goals you will be in with a shout of the play offs. Tommy was naive tactically. He never got us well drilled enough or settled enough into a formation for us to effective. We don't actually need the playoffs for a good season but the closer you are or the more fans can think if we'd only won x game we'd have made it. The more fans will come through the gates and the more will contribute to BTB etc in the hope we make it next time. The fan malaise under TW at the end was unacceptable. Games were unenjoyable. Need someone who will connect with the fans like Tommy did but also give us some blood and thunder back.

[Darlogramps]

Yet he’s generated £170k in transfer business,

Interested to see your figures for this. I suspect they won't stack up.

had to sell our prize asset CF and midfielder,

Perhaps if he'd been more consistent and not made poor summer signings, we'd have kept Styche.

As for Syers, Wright wasn't playing him.

do a mid-season rebuild with loans...

Wright had to tear up his strategy mid-season because it wasn't working. Nuneaton beat us (the same Nuneaton who who won only one more game after their win at BM).

Having to do a mid-season rebuild is a negative, not positive.

he steers us 15 points clear of the drop

Avoiding relegation on a competitive budget is not a success so stop pretending it is.

As for your claim in another thread that we played "mouthwatering" football - you're just delusional.

With the constraints we work under and the lack of any assets to attract outside investment I would like to know what those who were so eager to see TW axed would see as a realistic long term ambition

You're making it sound like we have a bottom third budget. Our budget was competitive for top 10, yet we spent most of the season dangling on the edge of a relegation battle.

Those three late wins papered over a lot of cracks (The only time in the season we won three-in-a-row - at a time we had no pressure on). We got to the end of the season and Wright still had no idea who his strongest team was. We were still being hopelessly inconsistent. Wright was still making the same mistakes.

On the point of long-term ambition, I want a manager who can provide consistency and have a clear idea of what he wants from the team - neither of which TW supplied. A manager who can generate an excitement about the place to get fans returning. Under TW we've dwindled to just over a thousand.


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[Emdubya]

Yet he’s generated £170k in transfer business, had to sell our prize asset CF and midfielder, seen two of his team represent their country, do a mid-season rebuild with loans...he steers us 15 points clear of the drop and, oh yeah, sets up an academy for the good of the club rather than himself as was the case with the previous incumbent. For me this negates the mistakes Re recruitment last summer. With the constraints we work under and the lack of any assets to attract outside investment I would like to know what those who were so eager to see TW axed would see as a realistic long term ambition

Winning a reasonable amount of football matches would do for most fans.No one is expecting us to go out and smash the league or get promoted but I for one would expect us to be organized and competitive at the very least.Something we haven’t been for the bulk of the season.

[theoriginalfatcat]

If Tommy wasn’t such a likeable chap - if he had a dour, monosyllabic, abrasive type of personality, and we judged him on football related matters only - would we even be having this discussion?

[LoidLucan]

I think we need to just accept that TW did his best but eventually lost the faith of the overwhelming majority of our fans and the board felt it was in the best interests of the club to part company.

TW told us he had put together a quality squad and he was confident that we would progress. We didn't, we've gone backwards and fans turned their backs. His 21 wins out of 71 matches tells its own story.

What we needed was evidence that the club is moving forwards but instead we have spent most of our time plummeting towards the bottom or scrambling to get away from it. Even TW felt it wasn't good enough.

It was clear that what was going to happen in the future was what we had in the past... one step forward and two back, a sign of hope and then more shockers to deflate the fans who voted with their feet. And major doubts over his judgement in permanent recruitment for the core of the side.

Yes he did bring transfer money into the club but we also lost income as fans were turned off and, crucially, we were set to face a big financial hit if he stayed.

Time to let it go and move forward.

[tdk1]

21 out of 71 - I hadn't realised that was his record. That's poor.

[50 years]

Fans on here assume that the majority wanted Tommy to leave, and that may be true but I thought given the feedback on the forum I was one of a small minority who would have liked to see him given another year, so we had some continuity and build on the finances, but was surprised while walking out the number of fans I talked to who said they would have preferred he had another season. Saying that none of them were below 40 so will have, like me, seen many bad years. Some fans were actually quite upset, I assume because he was a very approachable guy.

One thing for certain, he does love the club, and left with his head held high, and while the crowd were quiet, it was nice to hear the few chants at the end.

Given that we can't afford to buy a manager out of their contracts, we will need to get someone who has either been sacked by there current club, has walked out of there club, at the end of their contract or not in a job currently. Still we are where we are, and I hope we don't live to regret the decision and actually get a new manager recruited who can live with a restricted budget, can spot, recruit and develop young talent that we will be able to sell on, able to run a successful academy, build a good team spirit with an entertaining way of playing that fans want to watch, that deliver the results to get us a cup run and near to the playoff's, (or even in play off's but not win it unless we have a really good cup run to provide the finances needed for promotion). He will also need to have contacts,(or cheeky enough to ask), to secure loans from higher league clubs, (our best loans being from Bolton, Barnsley and Huddersfield this season).

Should be fairly easy then

[Vodka_Vic]

It was Tommy in his final interview who listed his achievements at Darlington and said that he's raised 170k in transfer fees, had a couple of England C internationals and set up the academy. I have no problem with him talking up his achievements, even if it may be a little one-sided. This shows that there clearly is a decent skills set there, and as Divas has alluded to in another thread, he seems well suited to being a manager of an academy rather than a first team manager. He said also that he has no regrets and that he has lessons to take forward and also mentioned having to work with the budget cuts. Great guy, probably not suited to being a manager at this level yet, hopefully he turns up at an academy somewhere in the Midlands as I feel he has a lot to offer in this regard.