Dorking Wandering
The Dorking Wanderers FC Fans Forum
Just over a month left in the 25/26 season, I thought it would be interesting to see our run-in and how it compares to the other teams who you can consider in the title race. I would say the title race goes down to Chelmsford in 10th (considering their 2 games in hand) which is interesting when comparing to the same stage last year.
Last season was considered a wide open title race with 6 teams capable of winning the league going in to the last game of the season. At this point last year, after 38 games, eventual champions Truro had 73 points, which is 1 point less than what we are currently on (74). The team in 10th place last season at this point (Farnborough) had 53 points which is considerably less than Chelmsford this season who currently have 60 points having played 2 games fewer.
In general, the gap from top to bottom is much narrower than last season. Bottom team Eastbourne currently have 31 points, just 6 points off safety. While last year, Aveley had 24 points at this point and were 14 points off safety.
Truro went on to finish on 89 points, winning on goal difference from Torquay. This means Truro picked up 16 points from their last 8 games, while runners-up Torquay picked up 21 points in that period.
As a result, I would expect the required final points to be slightly less than last year so we may only need 12-14 points from here to get the job done.
Looking at the remaining games, we have the second hardest run-in on paper, looking at purely average position of the fixtures:
| Club | Pts | Avg Pos | ||||||||||
| Dorking | 74 | Maidenhead (A) | Torquay (A) | Hemel (H) | Horsham (A) | Worthing (H) | Totton (A) | Bath (H) | Weston (A) | 9.8 | ||
| Hornchurch | 66 | Hemel (H) | Chesham (A) | Farnborough (A) | Dagenham (H) | Maidstone (A) | Ebbsfleet (H) | Chelmsford (H) | Chippenham (A) | Maidenhead (H) | 11 | |
| Worthing | 65 | Totton (A) | Weston (A) | Enfield (A) | Eastbourne (H) | Dorking (A) | Dagenham (H) | Maidstone (A) | Ebbsfleet (H) | 11.7 | ||
| Ebbsfleet | 65 | Weston (H) | Slough (H) | Tonbridge (A) | Dover (H) | Hornchurch (A) | Hampton (H) | Worthing (A) | 11.4 | |||
| Torquay | 64 | Dagenham (A) | Dorking (H) | Horsham (H) | Weston (A) | Bath (H) | Slough (A) | Hemel (H) | Tonbridge (A) | 10.5 | ||
| Hemel | 64 | Hornchurch (A) | Bath (A) | Dorking (A) | Weston (A) | Chesham (H) | Enfield (A) | Eastbourne (H) | Torquay (A) | Salisbury (H) | 12.8 | |
| Maidenhead | 62 | Dorking (H) | Weston (H) | Bath (H) | Slough (A) | Hampton (H) | Chelmsford (A) | Dover (H) | Hornchurch (A) | 11.8 | ||
| Maidstone | 61 | Chesham (A) | Totton (H) | Dover (A) | Hornchurch (H) | Horsham (A) | Worthing (H) | Bath (A) | 11.7 | |||
| Weston | 60 | Ebbsfleet (A) | Worthing (H) | Maidenhead (A) | Hemel (H) | Torquay (H) | Salisbury (A) | Enfield (H) | Horsham (H) | Dagenham (A) | Dorking (H) | 9.4 |
| Chelmsford | 60 | Dover (H) | Farnborough (A) | Chippenham (A) | Totton (H) | Enfield (H) | Dagenham (A) | Maidenhead (H) | Hornchurch (A) | Chesham (A) | Eastbourne (H) | 16.6 |
It's actually surprising how many of our rivals have to play eachother in the next 8-9 games with only Weston having a touger run of games than ourselves.
Chelmsford have by far the easiest run-in in terms of league position as they only have to play 3 of their rivals. That being said, teams fighting relegation can often be tougher at this time of year and fixture congestion may also be tough for them to handle.
Some interesting games on the last day of the season as well with our visit to Weston, Worthing hosting Ebbsfleet and Maidenhead travelling to Hornchurch. Hopefully we have it wrapped up by then!
The squad needs huge surgery in the summer, so if we do go up we'd be better equipped than we are now.
I think if we have just 2 home play off games for promotion it could be just about do-able, but the way it's going 2nd is a going to be a big effort.
Would be a tough job to have to go to Torquay or Hornchurch as the away team in a play off for example
"Why would I leave to join a League Two club? We're going there anyway!" - Marc White
Our squad is not good enough, too reliant on loan players and geriatrics
Our squad is plenty good enough, bar perhaps the striker department with only Alfie and Lawrence realistic forwards next season if JP can't do one more - it's the injuries that need to be addressed. And the average age is well down on past seasons too, so it's hardly geriatric.
