Dartford v City

Don't think our boys have got there yet according to Dartford twitter.

I don't think they turned up at all today!

I wish I hadn't! Not the gutless performance we suffered at Dartford last season, but for the second game running we made little impact against confident opponents.

Gary makes some very sensible observations in the interview posted by Junior but I think he dwells a little too much on defensive errors. I thought we coped pretty well with their fast breaks from defence, but at the other end we were almost anonymous apart from a sitter being missed at the end.

As I think we all suspected the last two games have shown us why we are mid-table. Having comfortably dealt with the teams down near the bottom we have come up (just) short against two of the three best teams in the division.

For 20 minutes I felt we more than matched them and I wasn't at all impressed with Dartford. They didn't seem to have any tactic other that lumping it as high and as far as they could. Clearly the turning point of the game was the penalty. I think it was one of those that had it been given for us I'd have felt a bit sorry for the opposition. We've won a few like that (and missed most of them) this season so it's swings and roundabouts.

This settled Dartford down and they began to look more like a play-off bound side. I thought we getting on top against toward the end of the half and had their no.9 taken the clear chance just before half time then that would have been a referee driven travesty.

Second half we never got going, which was as much down to Dartford dominating the middle of the park. The only criticism I'd have of City is that we could have brought Naby on for one of the forwards to try to counteract that. Perhaps if McCoulsky (I now know how to spell his name) had scored from the decent headed chance it would have made for a interesting closing minutes but in the end the better team won.

I guess it is now just a chance of trying to end the season strongly and carry some momentum into next year. We clearly have made progress from last season and when Owers was last in charge that seemed to be the way he worked. Evolution rather than revolution so we're evolving rather than revolving ...

I like the analysis Yuffie, but unless we get another Scott Partridge I think we are doomed not to rise any higher. For several seasons our lack of goals has held us back. Now I know these players don't grow on trees.

Yes, that is probably true. Maidenhead are a good example of a mid-table side who suddenly find a 30-goal striker and become title challengers.

I know that one player doesn't make all the difference to a team but I wonder if the fact that Axel was in the team for pretty much all of the unbeaten run and we have lost two out of three since he has been out is too simplistic.

I thought Dartford were well-drilled and organised in what they did. Defensively sound, although they'll probably have tougher tests. I think in all four games we've played against them I have little idea of how good Ibrahim is as a keeper as he's barely had a thing to do.

I didn't think it was a penalty but there seem to be an awful lot in this league. I think we've been awarded nine and conceded seven. What a strike from the spot though.

We've improved from last year but unless there's a bit of investment or, as mentioned above, we stumble across a goal-a-game striker (to be fair Watkins hasn't done much wrong in recent months) we'll probably always be a side that falls just short of the play-offs.

Another stand-out thing was the experience in the squad. Gary mentions age, from rough calculations Dartford's starting XI's average age was just under 26, with ours just under 25. The main difference is that stability. Their starting XI had 1868 appearances behind them going into the game, ours was 584.

Interesting stats there, Mark.

stillmanjunior wrote:I didn't think it was a penalty but there seem to be an awful lot in this league. I think we've been awarded nine and conceded seven. What a strike from the spot though.

From what you guys were saying in the commentary yesterday, they had a more nailed-on penalty in the second half so these things even themselves out.

Well, having awarded the first one, it was inconsistent that he didn't give the second. Batten had his arms all over a forward.

I nearly said "to his credit, he didn't go down" but so he shouldn't.

Basically gentlemen we're agreed - we aren't good enough at the moment and that may only come with the kind of amazing stability that Dartford have managed. I don't think Axel would have been instrumental in preventing the goals that have sunk us in the last two matches. But draws are all we can hope for against these kinds of teams given how little we troubled their defences.

I have been watching some of the older matches on Romans on Demand and I think we have made loads of progress, even from the beginning of the season, but it is also evident we still have a ways to go. It is interesting to me that adding one or two pieces can have a large impact, the question is to find the best pieces to put in.