Dorking (2)3 Altrincham (1)2 Bowerman, Rutherford, Prior

2,012 (79 from Alty)

I'm thinking a draw on Saturday, again they have frightening  good forwards and with pace again. 

Posted by: @happy-hammers

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I'm thinking a draw on Saturday, again they have frightening  good forwards and with pace again. 

I am going to this game, and I think it is a game we MUST win if we are going to stay up, particularly if Wealdstone win. 2-1 to Dorking.

I can see Ebbsfleet and Woking both getting at least a point from their home games and Wealdstone winning at least one of their remaining 6 games, meaning we would need to get at least 51 points to stay up . Just a draw would give us 44 points, requiring an out of form, unconfident team to get 7, probably 9 points from our last 3 games.

Therefore if we do not win on Saturday, i think we will probably be relegated at the end of the season. Feel Rutherford must play from start if we are going to win this one.

@crawleysth Personally I don't see us staying up unless we win all 4 games (12 pts). 3 wins and a draw (10 pts) might be ok if Wealdstone lose both of their games in hand and one of our 3 wins is against them.

9 points or less won't be enough in my opinion as the form of the other teams (Kiddy, York, Ebbsfleet, Woking, Maidenhead, etc) is just too good. Boreham Wood also look doomed.

I personally think we are down  I'm afraid. If we get out of this, then Marc is manager of the season. 😂

@happy-hammers 

Agree this side has 0 chance of staying up at this point.

Altrincham wins this one around 3-1 or 4-1. It will be your classic Dorking home loss, that we have grown used to this season. 

Unfortunately when you look at the pattern of results and the profile of the squad. This isn't the type of side to bang out 4 wins on the bounce and do the great escape. In any case, when you look at the table 4 wins on the bounce is probably not even enough.

We have all been around the game a number of years and can recognize the markers of a side capable of it, and this side is not capable of it. 

Marc needs to get himself a new head coach before next season too, very badly. We have not looked the same side since Mark Beard left. I think he was more instrumental than we realised at the time. 

A squad revamp should start after Altrincham as well.

@calvertskans I am not even sure 4 wins in a row is enough. In any case, after the Altrincham any delusions of staying up will finally be put to bed and the club can focus on next season.

If Alty have those pacey forwards, it is hard to see us defending successfully for 90 minutes so I can’t see a win here. 

I think you are right @JacksonFairweather about Mark Beard. When you compare with last season, we now have a better squad, fewer injuries, better training and travel to away games, but results have got worse rather than better during the season. 

Beard is the other notable change. The other factor is the second season syndrome, when teams have worked out how to play vs us.  So flexibility in tactics is required to match better teams.  And maybe that hasn’t happened enough.  There is nothing to lose now though, so it would be good to see something new on offer tomorrow. 

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The other factor is the second season syndrome, when teams have worked out how to play vs us.  

It can't be helping results that there is BoA on every week showing all the other teams our tactics. We are playing full time teams who have analysts who can watch every episode and read us like a book.

To he fair Marc has kept a few training injuries secret now and then to keep his cards close to his chest but when you're up against it , maybe giving away so much info isn't helpful?

Not watched BOA this season to be honest, as released far too long after each match. Tend to watch club highlights or occassionally, DWFTV which are produced much more quickly and I like the fan's view. 

As you say BOA used to give insight into management tactics and would be useful watch for other teams. Marc is also more open and honest in weekly updates than most managers, talking about injuries/possible ideas and I am sure these are useful for other teams too   However,   he has still surprised us with his team selection and tactics from time to time 

Just watched the game on the stream. 

It looked like Altrincham were playing in 2nd gear, not sure if that was right. 

Plus I couldn't see us scoring anytime soon. 

A game that was there for the taking, but we were so slow, turgid even, and toothless up front. Not sure their keeper had a shot on target to save?

For a game we needed to win, a 'play off final' if you like, it was just not enough in almost every department.

Incredibly with Wealdstone up next we could even get to the cusp of safety with a win there. Our goal difference will surely cost us at the final reckoning even if the points total doesn't.

Hornchurch joined Chesham in being promoted to Step 2 today

Agreed that we were fairly poor in forward areas today. I don't think losing Prior to injury early helped as the plan did just seem to be high crosses the whole game. Decision in making in general wasn't great today and there were far too many cases of misplaced passes and poor first touches. Thought Kuhl and Muitt were excellent, along with the back four, but everyone else had fairly poor-mediocre games. Thought Blair was especially poor and then Bowerman wasn't much better when he came on.

However, in isolation, it wasn't a bad performance or result today against an in form side sitting 4th in the table. The damage was done earlier in the season with the home results against the likes of Maidenhead, Kiddy, Oxford, Woking, etc.

Results elsewhere weren't terrible either with Wealdstone and York losing. We desperately need Kiddy to not win (ideally lose) in this late kick off to stand any chance of staying up going in to these last 3 games.

Side note - Alty have the most vile fans by an absolute mile. Literally no drama in the game at all (until the late red card) and they complained against every single decision. Spitting at the BoA cameras and signing about us going down at the final whistle. Hope they bottle the play offs, lose their best players in the Summer and go swiftly back down to the NLN where they belong.