Dorking Wandering
The Dorking Wanderers FC Fans Forum
A first game at Meadowbank under the lights this season, as we face promotion rivals Chelmsford City tomorrow night. The Clarets have had a strange start to the season; they currently sit 16th on 8 points but are actually unbeaten, picking up 1 win and 5 draws. The Essex side have one ex-Wanderer in the form of Jack Barham.
We await news of the injuries to Alfie Rutherford, Louie Annesley and Harry Forster from Saturday, but Marc did mention that he hoped Brennan Camp would return for this. I would expect some rotation for this one considering the minutes against Billericay and the long trip to Torquay this weekend.
Predictions:
Dorking 1-1 Chelmsford (Nikaj)
1,326 att.
Morris
Camp Philpot Sayers
Wood Francomb Pybus Lewis
Barrett
Nikaj McShane
Subs: Annesley, Ilesanmi, Grass, Tauta-Caballero, Pinchard, Forster, Rogalski
Think I'll go for a 1 - 1 draw...
What a strange game. The first half was easily the best half of attacking football I have seen this season. The goals we scored were absolute quality; the chances created frequent; but the headed finishing awful (Nikaj and Forster). We should have been 6-4 up. They had four chances and scored 3; some dodgy defending, a dubious offside (I couldn't see for sure) and unlucky bounces. Wood took his goal well and had a good game, but Lewis came on and immediately pinged over some great crosses. I thought Pybus and Pinchard ran the midfield really well and Barrett is looking more dynamic every week - he needs to be on the ball as much as possible. Defence looks a bit ropey at times - could have gone either way at the end. Great game overall though. And plenty of burgers going spare at the end!
What a strange game. The first half was easily the best half of attacking football I have seen this season. The goals we scored were absolute quality; the chances created frequent; but the headed finishing awful (Nikaj and Forster). We should have been 6-4 up. They had four chances and scored 3; some dodgy defending, a dubious offside (I couldn't see for sure) and unlucky bounces. Wood took his goal well and had a good game, but Lewis came on and immediately pinged over some great crosses. I thought Pybus and Pinchard ran the midfield really well and Barrett is looking more dynamic every week - he needs to be on the ball as much as possible. Defence looks a bit ropey at times - could have gone either way at the end. Great game overall though. And plenty of burgers going spare at the end!
The perfect summary - couldn't have put it better. We were insane going forward first half.
Some game! Two teams who want to play football, ping it about and create. Chelmsford played well, especially their number 24 (Olopade). A draw probably a fair result.
Forster’s best game for Dorking so far. Electric running at the full backs and looked to have a great connection with Barratt on the left. We have some serious ball players in that team. Really promising stuff, especially with Taylor still to come back. Nikaj was very tidy as well.
Even though we scored three, the concern still has to be the finishing. Three gilt-edged chances squandered in the first half, with two worldies converted. Nikaj misses far too many chances in the air. Annelsley also seemed to get dragged out into midfield, allowing players to run in behind when he lost out.
Most of all, are we starting to get worried about Morris? So eager to fly out of his goal, and doesn’t look as comfortable with his feet as Harrison did last year. Seemed at fault for some of the goals against Billericay, and again today.
Happy with that performance, onto Torquay!
I've just seen the offside "goal" now on highlights. It was not even close! I saw the ref almost blow straight away but he then looked over to the linesman who had his flag down. He even went over to discuss it, apparently on the advice of the fourth. I can't imagine how the linesman tried to justify it, or what he saw - it seemed so clear cut. 😡 Would love to hear the official explanation.
The ref also gave some really soft free kicks against Nikaj when he just held his ground in the box and defenders went to ground after initiating contact. Maddening!
That said - we had enough chances to win it and lost a bit of energy in second half.
