Dorking v Slough

[SloughFlyer]

5 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

SF, on your 'lack of creating too much attacking threat' point, how much do you think it was down to missing someone like Leon in our midfield?

Leon certainly drove the team forwards with good, probing runs and also distracted defenders by bursting through the midfield lines, thus creating space. 

I think though, having played with him in the side for the first 30 odd games of the season means at this point it's the team in flux and finding out how to play without him and what he bought. Whilst he had a massive impact on the team, we aren't and never have been a 1 man team, so whilst it'll take time, I think we'll get there and make those adjustments. 

I also think Scott had an excellent point in his interview about getting shots off when we can. I think for the past few years we as a side don't do that enough. Whilst I'm all for lovely worked opportunities and getting into the perfect position, you don't win a raffle if you don't buy a ticket, sometimes let's have a shot and see what comes of it (Dorkings first goal anyone).

There is work to do, but with the attacking players we have, we shouldn't be worried, it's just going to take time.

[Reading Rebel]

4 hours ago, SloughFlyer said:

Leon certainly drove the team forwards with good, probing runs and also distracted defenders by bursting through the midfield lines, thus creating space. 

I think though, having played with him in the side for the first 30 odd games of the season means at this point it's the team in flux and finding out how to play without him and what he bought. Whilst he had a massive impact on the team, we aren't and never have been a 1 man team, so whilst it'll take time, I think we'll get there and make those adjustments. 

I also think Scott had an excellent point in his interview about getting shots off when we can. I think for the past few years we as a side don't do that enough. Whilst I'm all for lovely worked opportunities and getting into the perfect position, you don't win a raffle if you don't buy a ticket, sometimes let's have a shot and see what comes of it (Dorkings first goal anyone).

There is work to do, but with the attacking players we have, we shouldn't be worried, it's just going to take time.

'It'll take time' 

My worry is have we got the time to adjust without Leon?

I'd like to think we are actively looking for a ready made replacement for Leon.

I can't see us getting many points on the board this month and we've still got to play the teams fighting the drop.

On the strikers front, I still don't think we've got a good enough strike force or a striker that will score 20+ goals.

Yes, I know they don't come cheap but it's something I think we will need for next season if we are still in the NLS and want to challenge for the play-offs.

[Holyport Rebel]

It was early Friday evening, and my mindset wasn't the greatest, having earlier that day handed over a shed load of dosh to my friendly local plumber for installing an unexpected requirement of a new boiler.
Thinking about the Slough match the next day, I felt pretty sure that Dorking would be confident of beating us and making it five wins out of the last six played and probably going top of the table.
To be honest I myself was pretty confident that Dorking would beat us and make it five wins out of six and probably go top of the table !
Defeats by 5-1, 4-0, 4-1,3-1 and another 3-1 alongside a couple of home draws have made it a brutal start to 2025 for us.
Injuries to key players, suspensions, and recently the loss of our probably best performing player this season Leon, have stretched our small squad so much.
While it was so disappointing to lose Leon, nobody could begrudge him the chance to go to an admittedly bigger full time team and do well in his footballing career.
I haven't seen anything written down about this, but I'm sure that Scott in his interview last week mentioned that we had a "sell-on" clause as part of Leon's transfer to Southend.
I really hope that this is the  case, as with the price of players even in the lower divisions of the Football League, we might end up in a year or two with another tidy lump sum bonus.
Wouldn't that be nice for both us and Leon.
I was disappointed that the club didn't divulge the fee paid by Southend.
The figure that has widely circulated is £50K.
I hope this is true as that would be at least some decent recompense for losing Leon's services, and if it was this much wouldn't that make it the biggest transfer in Slough's history, beating one's in the past such as Steve Thompson and Eric Young ?
What players those two individuals were for Slough !!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, back to Friday evening, and I received a text from another forum member "Bonjour", who alerted me to the fact that in 20 minutes time, at 7pm, Slough were going to announce a new signing.
Being in my mid -sixties, you would think that that was a bit old to get excited about a tit-bit from the club teasing news of a new player.
Nothing of the kind.
I was desperate to find out who it was !
When it was announced that it was Edon returning, I was really pleased.
My mood improved considerably !
Yes, I still thought that we would lose tomorrow against Dorking, but the dark clouds had parted, just a tad.
I did laugh when I saw a Farnborough fan on their forum moan that Farnborough
 " Had become just a feeder team to Slough ".
Saturday morning arrived and I jumped in the car to drive to Arbour Park to get the coach.
Arriving there I went inside the Rebels Bar, paid my money to Geoff and Jean, and got on the (cold) coach when it arrived soon after.
We were leaving quite early I thought for a short drive to Dorking, but we hit a queue of traffic on the M25 due to some incident or other which caused us a delay of about 20-25 minutes, but having lots of time to play with meant that we were always going to arrive at Dorking with time to spare.
When we got to Dorking we had to park, as in previous visits, on the High Street to get off the coach and go to the ground.
Dorking has got quite a pretty, old fashioned High Street, and it was nice to see in this day and age that it was busy with lots of shops and outlets open.
Sadly so different to Slough High Street now.
Having some time to play with before kick off, I walked down the High Street to where I knew a Waterstone's bookshop was, and went inside.
On a cold and miserable February winter's day, it was nice to go through the travel guide books and see photo's and articles about the Greek island I would be going on holiday to in the summer.
After this I went to the "Sports" section, and pulled out a book called something like
"100 Wembley matches for 100 years of Wembley Stadium"
Disappointingly, (but not surprisingly), our visit to the Twin Towers in 1973 wasn't rated worthy of inclusion.
A game that took place there only a few weeks after we had graced the "hallowed turf" was included though, which was the 1973 FA Cup Final between plucky underdogs Sunderland and that great ( but nasty and unloved) Leeds United team.
I remember I went to a friend of my dads house to see this match on his colour TV.
We still had to wait a couple of years before we were to rent a colour TV  from D.E.R for ourselves !
As everyone surely knows, Sunderland won, and anybody who watched that game on TV will never forget Bob Stokoe running on the pitch in his hat and overcoat to embrace the Sunderland goalie, Jim Montgomery, who had made some incredible saves to stop Leeds scoring. 
Youngsters today can have no understanding of just how big a match the FA Cup Final used to be, regardless of whoever was playing.
It was massive.
Happy memories.
As it was getting closer to kick off time I made my way back to the ground.
I had tried to find out on the various Dorking media outlet's what their concession age was for admission.
Most clubs it is 65, but for some it is 60.
It's always nice to save a couple of quid when I can !
I couldn't see it anywhere on their sites, but when I got to the turnstile , the polite bloke behind the window told me it was 60, so that was a nice surprise.
What wasn't a nice surprise was finding out that their "programme" was something that they issue only monthly, with a whopping price tag of £4. !
I know I love my programmes, but £4 for something that would not be particularly relevant I thought to the game I was attending was  too much to pay.
Before I had reached the turnstile I had had to be scanned with what seemed like an airport style metal detector, in case of course I was hiding a AK-47 machine gun or a rocket powered grenade launcher on my person.
And again we were segregated.
I'm not too surprised when we go to league games against teams like Yeovil, Torquay or Maidstone and get our own section in the ground, but Dorking ?
Marc White might think Dorking are a "big" team, but to me they are miles away from the stature of the three teams I have just mentioned.    
The section of the ground we were given wasn't too bad though.
We've had worse !
I just would not like this situation to become the norm at our level.
To me it's not what non-league football is all about.
As to the game, I was hoping that we might somehow get to half time with a 0-0 score line, and Charlie made some superb saves to keep the score line blank.
We were battling hard, but Dorking were playing well and looking like a team who could well finish up at the end of the season winning the league.
We got to about 20 minutes into the game when Charlie saved another long range Dorking effort, but sadly the ball popped up nicely for two  Dorking players to combine to score a simple tap-in.
Hopes of getting to half-time with just a 1-0 score line were dashed when about 10 minutes before half-time Dorking scored again.
From memory it was a bit of a scrappy goal, with a deflection playing a  big part of it.
So 2-0.
Dorking were easily the dominant team, but we reached added time with the same score, and then Slavi gave us a life line with a battling goal seconds before the half time whistle.
Going in at 2-1 was so much better than going in 2-0 down.
Surely we would be much more upbeat in the dressing room having scored that goal, but we still faced a massive battle to stay in the match in the second half.
Second half I thought we had more of the game, but even battling as hard as we did, Dorking were on the day much too good for us, and a final score of 3-1 was a fair outcome.
Edon had a very good debut for us, which bodes well for the future.
I thought too that our new left back  Lewis Miccio also showed promise.  
As Scott says in his interview, when we get everyone back, fit and available we will be in a much stronger  position than we are at the moment.
I thought the support we Slough fans gave the team yesterday was absolutely superb, as it has been for so many away games this season and even pleasing to see for many home games too.
How many other sides would get the ovation at the end of what, lets face it was another defeat, from their fans ?
If we see that the team is  battling away to get the results we all want, but falls short, we will acknowledge that effort.
This league is so demanding.
The season is long and hard, and we still have about a third of it left to go.
Right, who have we got to play the next few Saturday's then ?
Lets have a look.
Maidstone, Worthing and then the long trip to Truro.
Oh for crying out loud !
It doesn't get any easier, does it ?
This run of bad results will change.
I'm sure of it.
All us Rebels' fans are behind you Scotty.
Never doubt it.
COYR ! 
 
 

Edited February 2 by Holyport Rebel

[Scott Davies]

50 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

'It'll take time' 

My worry is have we got the time to adjust without Leon?

I'd like to think we are actively looking for a ready made replacement for Leon.

I can't see us getting many points on the board this month and we've still got to play the teams fighting the drop.

On the strikers front, I still don't think we've got a good enough strike force or a striker that will score 20+ goals.

Yes, I know they don't come cheap but it's something I think we will need for next season if we are still in the NLS and want to challenge for the play-offs.

We’ve scored 133 league goals in 76 games. Only Worthing have scored more than us during that time, since the beginning of last season so that argument doesn’t exist in my opinion. Third highest goal scorers this season behind two of the powerhouses.

We’ve just conceded too many of late. Once we get a settled back line with everyone back fit I’m sure we will have a good balance to our team.

As for finding another Leon, you don’t find those every day. He was third lowest paid player in the squad who just went about his work brilliantly well and reaped the rewards that come with it.

 

[SloughFlyer]

5 hours ago, Scott Davies said:

We’ve scored 133 league goals in 76 games. Only Worthing have scored more than us during that time, since the beginning of last season so that argument doesn’t exist in my opinion. Third highest goal scorers this season behind two of the powerhouses.

We’ve just conceded too many of late. Once we get a settled back line with everyone back fit I’m sure we will have a good balance to our team.

As for finding another Leon, you don’t find those every day. He was third lowest paid player in the squad who just went about his work brilliantly well and reaped the rewards that come with it.

 

Couldn't agree more Scott. The clear issue currently is with the defence and you have taken the steps needed to address those problems. Just got to get everyone fit now and I think it'll solid everything up and also, allow for some rotation when required. Attacking wise, we'll be fine, and hopefully with the return of Sam Evans, that'll help support Slavi as well.

[Bernie Gogan]

5 hours ago, Holyport Rebel said:

It was early Friday evening, and my mindset wasn't the greatest, having earlier that day handed over a shed load of dosh to my friendly local plumber for installing an unexpected requirement of a new boiler.
Thinking about the Slough match the next day, I felt pretty sure that Dorking would be confident of beating us and making it five wins out of the last six played and probably going top of the table.
To be honest I myself was pretty confident that Dorking would beat us and make it five wins out of six and probably go top of the table !
Defeats by 5-1, 4-0, 4-1,3-1 and another 3-1 alongside a couple of home draws have made it a brutal start to 2025 for us.
Injuries to key players, suspensions, and recently the loss of our probably best performing player this season Leon, have stretched our small squad so much.
While it was so disappointing to lose Leon, nobody could begrudge him the chance to go to an admittedly bigger full time team and do well in his footballing career.
I haven't seen anything written down about this, but I'm sure that Scott in his interview last week mentioned that we had a "sell-on" clause as part of Leon's transfer to Southend.
I really hope that this is the  case, as with the price of players even in the lower divisions of the Football League, we might end up in a year or two with another tidy lump sum bonus.
Wouldn't that be nice for both us and Leon.
I was disappointed that the club didn't divulge the fee paid by Southend.
The figure that has widely circulated is £50K.
I hope this is true as that would be at least some decent recompense for losing Leon's services, and if it was this much wouldn't that make it the biggest transfer in Slough's history, beating one's in the past such as Steve Thompson and Eric Young ?
What players those two individuals were for Slough !!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, back to Friday evening, and I received a text from another forum member "Bonjour", who alerted me to the fact that in 20 minutes time, at 7pm, Slough were going to announce a new signing.
Being in my mid -sixties, you would think that that was a bit old to get excited about a tit-bit from the club teasing news of a new player.
Nothing of the kind.
I was desperate to find out who it was !
When it was announced that it was Edon returning, I was really pleased.
My mood improved considerably !
Yes, I still thought that we would lose tomorrow against Dorking, but the dark clouds had parted, just a tad.
I did laugh when I saw a Farnborough fan on their forum moan that Farnborough
 " Had become just a feeder team to Slough ".
Saturday morning arrived and I jumped in the car to drive to Arbour Park to get the coach.
Arriving there I went inside the Rebels Bar, paid my money to Geoff and Jean, and got on the (cold) coach when it arrived soon after.
We were leaving quite early I thought for a short drive to Dorking, but we hit a queue of traffic on the M25 due to some incident or other which caused us a delay of about 20-25 minutes, but having lots of time to play with meant that we were always going to arrive at Dorking with time to spare.
When we got to Dorking we had to park, as in previous visits, on the High Street to get off the coach and go to the ground.
Dorking has got quite a pretty, old fashioned High Street, and it was nice to see in this day and age that it was busy with lots of shops and outlets open.
Sadly so different to Slough High Street now.
Having some time to play with before kick off, I walked down the High Street to where I knew a Waterstone's bookshop was, and went inside.
On a cold and miserable February winter's day, it was nice to go through the travel guide books and see photo's and articles about the Greek island I would be going on holiday to in the summer.
After this I went to the "Sports" section, and pulled out a book called something like
"100 Wembley matches for 100 years of Wembley Stadium"
Disappointingly, (but not surprisingly), our visit to the Twin Towers in 1973 wasn't rated worthy of inclusion.
A game that took place there only a few weeks after we had graced the "hallowed turf" was included though, which was the 1973 FA Cup Final between plucky underdogs Sunderland and that great ( but nasty and unloved) Leeds United team.
I remember I went to a friend of my dads house to see this match on his colour TV.
We still had to wait a couple of years before we were to rent a colour TV  from D.E.R for ourselves !
As everyone surely knows, Sunderland won, and anybody who watched that game on TV will never forget Bob Stokoe running on the pitch in his hat and overcoat to embrace the Sunderland goalie, Jim Montgomery, who had made some incredible saves to stop Leeds scoring. 
Youngsters today can have no understanding of just how big a match the FA Cup Final used to be, regardless of whoever was playing.
It was massive.
Happy memories.
As it was getting closer to kick off time I made my way back to the ground.
I had tried to find out on the various Dorking media outlet's what their concession age was for admission.
Most clubs it is 65, but for some it is 60.
It's always nice to save a couple of quid when I can !
I couldn't see it anywhere on their sites, but when I got to the turnstile , the polite bloke behind the window told me it was 60, so that was a nice surprise.
What wasn't a nice surprise was finding out that their "programme" was something that they issue only monthly, with a whopping price tag of £4. !
I know I love my programmes, but £4 for something that would not be particularly relevant I thought to the game I was attending was  too much to pay.
Before I had reached the turnstile I had had to be scanned with what seemed like an airport style metal detector, in case of course I was hiding a AK-47 machine gun or a rocket powered grenade launcher on my person.
And again we were segregated.
I'm not too surprised when we go to league games against teams like Yeovil, Torquay or Maidstone and get our own section in the ground, but Dorking ?
Marc White might think Dorking are a "big" team, but to me they are miles away from the stature of the three teams I have just mentioned.    
The section of the ground we were given wasn't too bad though.
We've had worse !
I just would not like this situation to become the norm at our level.
To me it's not what non-league football is all about.
As to the game, I was hoping that we might somehow get to half time with a 0-0 score line, and Charlie made some superb saves to keep the score line blank.
We were battling hard, but Dorking were playing well and looking like a team who could well finish up at the end of the season winning the league.
We got to about 20 minutes into the game when Charlie saved another long range Dorking effort, but sadly the ball popped up nicely for two  Dorking players to combine to score a simple tap-in.
Hopes of getting to half-time with just a 1-0 score line were dashed when about 10 minutes before half-time Dorking scored again.
From memory it was a bit of a scrappy goal, with a deflection playing a  big part of it.
So 2-0.
Dorking were easily the dominant team, but we reached added time with the same score, and then Slavi gave us a life line with a battling goal seconds before the half time whistle.
Going in at 2-1 was so much better than going in 2-0 down.
Surely we would be much more upbeat in the dressing room having scored that goal, but we still faced a massive battle to stay in the match in the second half.
Second half I thought we had more of the game, but even battling as hard as we did, Dorking were on the day much too good for us, and a final score of 3-1 was a fair outcome.
Edon had a very good debut for us, which bodes well for the future.
I thought too that our new left back  Lewis Miccio also showed promise.  
As Scott says in his interview, when we get everyone back, fit and available we will be in a much stronger  position than we are at the moment.
I thought the support we Slough fans gave the team yesterday was absolutely superb, as it has been for so many away games this season and even pleasing to see for many home games too.
How many other sides would get the ovation at the end of what, lets face it was another defeat, from their fans ?
If we see that the team is  battling away to get the results we all want, but falls short, we will acknowledge that effort.
This league is so demanding.
The season is long and hard, and we still have about a third of it left to go.
Right, who have we got to play the next few Saturday's then ?
Lets have a look.
Maidstone, Worthing and then the long trip to Truro.
Oh for crying out loud !
It doesn't get any easier, does it ?
This run of bad results will change.
I'm sure of it.
All us Rebels' fans are behind you Scotty.
Never doubt it.
COYR ! 
 
 

Pretty much how I felt HR. Pleased to have Edon back, but went to the game not expecting very much, but was surprised how good Dorking were. Obviously a full time side with a well stocked squad and when you compare them with the Maidenhead side we beat in December it feels like there are miles between the resources of our club and Maidenhead combined. This of course will be true for most of the sides below Weston Super Mare in our league, even Farnborough! 

One thing, I'm not so sure it was segregated. For instance I entered at the first turnstile as you approach the ground, with an "away" ticket was able to visit "The Lounge" which is upstairs in the main block and then to visit the "Fanzone" thereafter which is situated at the "away" end. Admittedly the end terrace was blocked off apart from a section by the corner flag, but I'm pretty confident I could have gone to the other end if I'd wanted.

Programme at £4 covers 3 Feb games, 2 of which I won't be attending. A bit of a cop out or even a rip off imo, as were the NL level ticket prices (£20 at Maidenhead for example, no programmes there though, and on line versions don't count).

Away Fan experience for visits to NL (or heavily aspirational) clubs: Dorking 6/10, Eastbourne 7/10, Boring Wood 3/10, Kidderminster 4/10, Maidenhead 6/10, Maidstone 7/10, Ebbsfleet 2/10, Bromley 4/10, Woking 2/10.

Having seen Eastbourne, Boreham Wood, Torquay and now Dorking as part of our bad run, I can say Dorking look the best side so far. Onto Maidstone (and Temi Eweka) on Saturday another full time side with only one defeat on the road this season. I'd take a draw!

[SloughFlyer]

3 minutes ago, Bernie Gogan said:

Pretty much how I felt HR. Pleased to have Edon back, but went to the game not expecting very much, but was surprised how good Dorking were. Obviously a full time side with a well stocked squad and when you compare them with the Maidenhead side we beat in December it feels like there are miles between the resources of our club and Maidenhead combined. This of course will be true for most of the sides below Weston Super Mare in our league, even Farnborough! 

One thing, I'm not so sure it was segregated. For instance I entered at the first turnstile as you approach the ground, with an "away" ticket was able to visit "The Lounge" which is upstairs in the main block and then to visit the "Fanzone" thereafter which is situated at the "away" end. Admittedly the end terrace was blocked off apart from a section by the corner flag, but I'm pretty confident I could have gone to the other end if I'd wanted.

Programme at £4 covers 3 Feb games, 2 of which I won't be attending. A bit of a cop out or even a rip off imo, as were the NL level ticket prices (£20 at Maidenhead for example, no programmes there though, and on line versions don't count).

Away Fan experience for visits to NL (or heavily aspirational) clubs: Dorking 6/10, Eastbourne 7/10, Boring Wood 3/10, Kidderminster 4/10, Maidenhead 6/10, Maidstone 7/10, Ebbsfleet 2/10, Bromley 4/10, Woking 2/10.

Having seen Eastbourne, Boreham Wood, Torquay and now Dorking as part of our bad run, I can say Dorking look the best side so far. Onto Maidstone (and Temi Eweka) on Saturday another full time side with only one defeat on the road this season. I'd take a draw!

100% wasn't segregated yesterday as we sat in the main stand surrounded by some very good Dorking fans who we had a good chat with.

Unless you are expecting thousands of fans or with the potential for idiots (like the Farnborough / Maidenhead games) no games should be segregated at this level IMO. 

[Holyport Rebel]

Very interesting hearing other Rebels fans talk about their experience of segregation in the ground at yesterday's match.

From looking at the Dorking website before the game, although you were able to buy "home" or "away" online  tickets for the match, it wasn't clear to me if segregation was actually going to be in place yesterday.

I asked a Dorking steward I came across near the "home" end turnstile, if segregation was going to be in place today and he said "Yes it was".

I said to him "are you serious?", and he replied "yes".

Also, the "away" turnstile operator told me that when I went through his turnstile, I had to turn left.

Having got through his gate , just to see what would happen if I did indeed turn right and head towards the Dorking Stand on the half way line, I took two steps to my right and was immediately told by another steward I could not go any further in that direction, and that I had to turn left.

This led  to a closed off section which to me  only contained  Slough fans.

I couldn't go any further around the pitch as it seemed to me there was a  yellow barrier stopping people from doing this just past the corner flag, and I couldn't go in the reverse direction towards the half way line as I had already been told I couldn't go that way !

That's why I said the game was segregated. 

 

 

[Irishadrian]

7 hours ago, Holyport Rebel said:

It was early Friday evening, and my mindset wasn't the greatest, having earlier that day handed over a shed load of dosh to my friendly local plumber for installing an unexpected requirement of a new boiler.
Thinking about the Slough match the next day, I felt pretty sure that Dorking would be confident of beating us and making it five wins out of the last six played and probably going top of the table.
To be honest I myself was pretty confident that Dorking would beat us and make it five wins out of six and probably go top of the table !
Defeats by 5-1, 4-0, 4-1,3-1 and another 3-1 alongside a couple of home draws have made it a brutal start to 2025 for us.
Injuries to key players, suspensions, and recently the loss of our probably best performing player this season Leon, have stretched our small squad so much.
While it was so disappointing to lose Leon, nobody could begrudge him the chance to go to an admittedly bigger full time team and do well in his footballing career.
I haven't seen anything written down about this, but I'm sure that Scott in his interview last week mentioned that we had a "sell-on" clause as part of Leon's transfer to Southend.
I really hope that this is the  case, as with the price of players even in the lower divisions of the Football League, we might end up in a year or two with another tidy lump sum bonus.
Wouldn't that be nice for both us and Leon.
I was disappointed that the club didn't divulge the fee paid by Southend.
The figure that has widely circulated is £50K.
I hope this is true as that would be at least some decent recompense for losing Leon's services, and if it was this much wouldn't that make it the biggest transfer in Slough's history, beating one's in the past such as Steve Thompson and Eric Young ?
What players those two individuals were for Slough !!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, back to Friday evening, and I received a text from another forum member "Bonjour", who alerted me to the fact that in 20 minutes time, at 7pm, Slough were going to announce a new signing.
Being in my mid -sixties, you would think that that was a bit old to get excited about a tit-bit from the club teasing news of a new player.
Nothing of the kind.
I was desperate to find out who it was !
When it was announced that it was Edon returning, I was really pleased.
My mood improved considerably !
Yes, I still thought that we would lose tomorrow against Dorking, but the dark clouds had parted, just a tad.
I did laugh when I saw a Farnborough fan on their forum moan that Farnborough
 " Had become just a feeder team to Slough ".
Saturday morning arrived and I jumped in the car to drive to Arbour Park to get the coach.
Arriving there I went inside the Rebels Bar, paid my money to Geoff and Jean, and got on the (cold) coach when it arrived soon after.
We were leaving quite early I thought for a short drive to Dorking, but we hit a queue of traffic on the M25 due to some incident or other which caused us a delay of about 20-25 minutes, but having lots of time to play with meant that we were always going to arrive at Dorking with time to spare.
When we got to Dorking we had to park, as in previous visits, on the High Street to get off the coach and go to the ground.
Dorking has got quite a pretty, old fashioned High Street, and it was nice to see in this day and age that it was busy with lots of shops and outlets open.
Sadly so different to Slough High Street now.
Having some time to play with before kick off, I walked down the High Street to where I knew a Waterstone's bookshop was, and went inside.
On a cold and miserable February winter's day, it was nice to go through the travel guide books and see photo's and articles about the Greek island I would be going on holiday to in the summer.
After this I went to the "Sports" section, and pulled out a book called something like
"100 Wembley matches for 100 years of Wembley Stadium"
Disappointingly, (but not surprisingly), our visit to the Twin Towers in 1973 wasn't rated worthy of inclusion.
A game that took place there only a few weeks after we had graced the "hallowed turf" was included though, which was the 1973 FA Cup Final between plucky underdogs Sunderland and that great ( but nasty and unloved) Leeds United team.
I remember I went to a friend of my dads house to see this match on his colour TV.
We still had to wait a couple of years before we were to rent a colour TV  from D.E.R for ourselves !
As everyone surely knows, Sunderland won, and anybody who watched that game on TV will never forget Bob Stokoe running on the pitch in his hat and overcoat to embrace the Sunderland goalie, Jim Montgomery, who had made some incredible saves to stop Leeds scoring. 
Youngsters today can have no understanding of just how big a match the FA Cup Final used to be, regardless of whoever was playing.
It was massive.
Happy memories.
As it was getting closer to kick off time I made my way back to the ground.
I had tried to find out on the various Dorking media outlet's what their concession age was for admission.
Most clubs it is 65, but for some it is 60.
It's always nice to save a couple of quid when I can !
I couldn't see it anywhere on their sites, but when I got to the turnstile , the polite bloke behind the window told me it was 60, so that was a nice surprise.
What wasn't a nice surprise was finding out that their "programme" was something that they issue only monthly, with a whopping price tag of £4. !
I know I love my programmes, but £4 for something that would not be particularly relevant I thought to the game I was attending was  too much to pay.
Before I had reached the turnstile I had had to be scanned with what seemed like an airport style metal detector, in case of course I was hiding a AK-47 machine gun or a rocket powered grenade launcher on my person.
And again we were segregated.
I'm not too surprised when we go to league games against teams like Yeovil, Torquay or Maidstone and get our own section in the ground, but Dorking ?
Marc White might think Dorking are a "big" team, but to me they are miles away from the stature of the three teams I have just mentioned.    
The section of the ground we were given wasn't too bad though.
We've had worse !
I just would not like this situation to become the norm at our level.
To me it's not what non-league football is all about.
As to the game, I was hoping that we might somehow get to half time with a 0-0 score line, and Charlie made some superb saves to keep the score line blank.
We were battling hard, but Dorking were playing well and looking like a team who could well finish up at the end of the season winning the league.
We got to about 20 minutes into the game when Charlie saved another long range Dorking effort, but sadly the ball popped up nicely for two  Dorking players to combine to score a simple tap-in.
Hopes of getting to half-time with just a 1-0 score line were dashed when about 10 minutes before half-time Dorking scored again.
From memory it was a bit of a scrappy goal, with a deflection playing a  big part of it.
So 2-0.
Dorking were easily the dominant team, but we reached added time with the same score, and then Slavi gave us a life line with a battling goal seconds before the half time whistle.
Going in at 2-1 was so much better than going in 2-0 down.
Surely we would be much more upbeat in the dressing room having scored that goal, but we still faced a massive battle to stay in the match in the second half.
Second half I thought we had more of the game, but even battling as hard as we did, Dorking were on the day much too good for us, and a final score of 3-1 was a fair outcome.
Edon had a very good debut for us, which bodes well for the future.
I thought too that our new left back  Lewis Miccio also showed promise.  
As Scott says in his interview, when we get everyone back, fit and available we will be in a much stronger  position than we are at the moment.
I thought the support we Slough fans gave the team yesterday was absolutely superb, as it has been for so many away games this season and even pleasing to see for many home games too.
How many other sides would get the ovation at the end of what, lets face it was another defeat, from their fans ?
If we see that the team is  battling away to get the results we all want, but falls short, we will acknowledge that effort.
This league is so demanding.
The season is long and hard, and we still have about a third of it left to go.
Right, who have we got to play the next few Saturday's then ?
Lets have a look.
Maidstone, Worthing and then the long trip to Truro.
Oh for crying out loud !
It doesn't get any easier, does it ?
This run of bad results will change.
I'm sure of it.
All us Rebels' fans are behind you Scotty.
Never doubt it.
COYR ! 
 
 

An absolute gem of a post as always I've spent 3 days in Musgrove Park Hospital Swindon with  E coli infection hopefully out tomorrow Post really cheered me up!

[Holyport Rebel]

3 minutes ago, Irishadrian said:

An absolute gem of a post as always I've spent 3 days in Musgrove Park Hospital Swindon with  E coli infection hopefully out tomorrow Post really cheered me up!

Thanks again Adrian !

Get better soon !

[Reading Rebel]

15 hours ago, Holyport Rebel said:

Very interesting hearing other Rebels fans talk about their experience of segregation in the ground at yesterday's match.

From looking at the Dorking website before the game, although you were able to buy "home" or "away" online  tickets for the match, it wasn't clear to me if segregation was actually going to be in place yesterday.

I asked a Dorking steward I came across near the "home" end turnstile, if segregation was going to be in place today and he said "Yes it was".

I said to him "are you serious?", and he replied "yes".

Also, the "away" turnstile operator told me that when I went through his turnstile, I had to turn left.

Having got through his gate , just to see what would happen if I did indeed turn right and head towards the Dorking Stand on the half way line, I took two steps to my right and was immediately told by another steward I could not go any further in that direction, and that I had to turn left.

This led  to a closed off section which to me  only contained  Slough fans.

I couldn't go any further around the pitch as it seemed to me there was a  yellow barrier stopping people from doing this just past the corner flag, and I couldn't go in the reverse direction towards the half way line as I had already been told I couldn't go that way !

That's why I said the game was segregated. 

 

 

I'm pretty sure you're right HR and the game was segregated.

I made an inquiry and was told that there was a special section of the ground for away supporters which had a bar etc.

Any away supporters who went any where else in the ground was obviously a mistake.

Edited February 3 by Reading Rebel

[SloughFlyer]

10 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

I'm pretty sure you're right HR and the game was segregated.

I made an inquiry and was told that there was a special section of the ground for away supporters which had a bar etc.

Anyone away supporters who went any where else in the ground was obviously a mistake.

You may well be right RR. Wouldn't be the first time we have ended up somewhere we weren't supposed to be😂😂. Although there were plenty of Slough fans sitting around us and Sam Evans and Ody Alfa sat next to us as well. According to the Dorking guys in front of us, the right hand side of the main stand used to be only away fans, but this season they have changed it to allow Dorking fans season seats there as well. 

Interesting part was the amount of Dorking fans with season seats that weren't there. They must have been 20 odd seats around us with stickers on them that were vacant (Sam and Ody filled 2 of them next to my son).

[Reading Rebel]

23 hours ago, Holyport Rebel said:

It was early Friday evening, and my mindset wasn't the greatest, having earlier that day handed over a shed load of dosh to my friendly local plumber for installing an unexpected requirement of a new boiler.
Thinking about the Slough match the next day, I felt pretty sure that Dorking would be confident of beating us and making it five wins out of the last six played and probably going top of the table.
To be honest I myself was pretty confident that Dorking would beat us and make it five wins out of six and probably go top of the table !
Defeats by 5-1, 4-0, 4-1,3-1 and another 3-1 alongside a couple of home draws have made it a brutal start to 2025 for us.
Injuries to key players, suspensions, and recently the loss of our probably best performing player this season Leon, have stretched our small squad so much.
While it was so disappointing to lose Leon, nobody could begrudge him the chance to go to an admittedly bigger full time team and do well in his footballing career.
I haven't seen anything written down about this, but I'm sure that Scott in his interview last week mentioned that we had a "sell-on" clause as part of Leon's transfer to Southend.
I really hope that this is the  case, as with the price of players even in the lower divisions of the Football League, we might end up in a year or two with another tidy lump sum bonus.
Wouldn't that be nice for both us and Leon.
I was disappointed that the club didn't divulge the fee paid by Southend.
The figure that has widely circulated is £50K.
I hope this is true as that would be at least some decent recompense for losing Leon's services, and if it was this much wouldn't that make it the biggest transfer in Slough's history, beating one's in the past such as Steve Thompson and Eric Young ?
What players those two individuals were for Slough !!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, back to Friday evening, and I received a text from another forum member "Bonjour", who alerted me to the fact that in 20 minutes time, at 7pm, Slough were going to announce a new signing.
Being in my mid -sixties, you would think that that was a bit old to get excited about a tit-bit from the club teasing news of a new player.
Nothing of the kind.
I was desperate to find out who it was !
When it was announced that it was Edon returning, I was really pleased.
My mood improved considerably !
Yes, I still thought that we would lose tomorrow against Dorking, but the dark clouds had parted, just a tad.
I did laugh when I saw a Farnborough fan on their forum moan that Farnborough
 " Had become just a feeder team to Slough ".
Saturday morning arrived and I jumped in the car to drive to Arbour Park to get the coach.
Arriving there I went inside the Rebels Bar, paid my money to Geoff and Jean, and got on the (cold) coach when it arrived soon after.
We were leaving quite early I thought for a short drive to Dorking, but we hit a queue of traffic on the M25 due to some incident or other which caused us a delay of about 20-25 minutes, but having lots of time to play with meant that we were always going to arrive at Dorking with time to spare.
When we got to Dorking we had to park, as in previous visits, on the High Street to get off the coach and go to the ground.
Dorking has got quite a pretty, old fashioned High Street, and it was nice to see in this day and age that it was busy with lots of shops and outlets open.
Sadly so different to Slough High Street now.
Having some time to play with before kick off, I walked down the High Street to where I knew a Waterstone's bookshop was, and went inside.
On a cold and miserable February winter's day, it was nice to go through the travel guide books and see photo's and articles about the Greek island I would be going on holiday to in the summer.
After this I went to the "Sports" section, and pulled out a book called something like
"100 Wembley matches for 100 years of Wembley Stadium"
Disappointingly, (but not surprisingly), our visit to the Twin Towers in 1973 wasn't rated worthy of inclusion.
A game that took place there only a few weeks after we had graced the "hallowed turf" was included though, which was the 1973 FA Cup Final between plucky underdogs Sunderland and that great ( but nasty and unloved) Leeds United team.
I remember I went to a friend of my dads house to see this match on his colour TV.
We still had to wait a couple of years before we were to rent a colour TV  from D.E.R for ourselves !
As everyone surely knows, Sunderland won, and anybody who watched that game on TV will never forget Bob Stokoe running on the pitch in his hat and overcoat to embrace the Sunderland goalie, Jim Montgomery, who had made some incredible saves to stop Leeds scoring. 
Youngsters today can have no understanding of just how big a match the FA Cup Final used to be, regardless of whoever was playing.
It was massive.
Happy memories.
As it was getting closer to kick off time I made my way back to the ground.
I had tried to find out on the various Dorking media outlet's what their concession age was for admission.
Most clubs it is 65, but for some it is 60.
It's always nice to save a couple of quid when I can !
I couldn't see it anywhere on their sites, but when I got to the turnstile , the polite bloke behind the window told me it was 60, so that was a nice surprise.
What wasn't a nice surprise was finding out that their "programme" was something that they issue only monthly, with a whopping price tag of £4. !
I know I love my programmes, but £4 for something that would not be particularly relevant I thought to the game I was attending was  too much to pay.
Before I had reached the turnstile I had had to be scanned with what seemed like an airport style metal detector, in case of course I was hiding a AK-47 machine gun or a rocket powered grenade launcher on my person.
And again we were segregated.
I'm not too surprised when we go to league games against teams like Yeovil, Torquay or Maidstone and get our own section in the ground, but Dorking ?
Marc White might think Dorking are a "big" team, but to me they are miles away from the stature of the three teams I have just mentioned.    
The section of the ground we were given wasn't too bad though.
We've had worse !
I just would not like this situation to become the norm at our level.
To me it's not what non-league football is all about.
As to the game, I was hoping that we might somehow get to half time with a 0-0 score line, and Charlie made some superb saves to keep the score line blank.
We were battling hard, but Dorking were playing well and looking like a team who could well finish up at the end of the season winning the league.
We got to about 20 minutes into the game when Charlie saved another long range Dorking effort, but sadly the ball popped up nicely for two  Dorking players to combine to score a simple tap-in.
Hopes of getting to half-time with just a 1-0 score line were dashed when about 10 minutes before half-time Dorking scored again.
From memory it was a bit of a scrappy goal, with a deflection playing a  big part of it.
So 2-0.
Dorking were easily the dominant team, but we reached added time with the same score, and then Slavi gave us a life line with a battling goal seconds before the half time whistle.
Going in at 2-1 was so much better than going in 2-0 down.
Surely we would be much more upbeat in the dressing room having scored that goal, but we still faced a massive battle to stay in the match in the second half.
Second half I thought we had more of the game, but even battling as hard as we did, Dorking were on the day much too good for us, and a final score of 3-1 was a fair outcome.
Edon had a very good debut for us, which bodes well for the future.
I thought too that our new left back  Lewis Miccio also showed promise.  
As Scott says in his interview, when we get everyone back, fit and available we will be in a much stronger  position than we are at the moment.
I thought the support we Slough fans gave the team yesterday was absolutely superb, as it has been for so many away games this season and even pleasing to see for many home games too.
How many other sides would get the ovation at the end of what, lets face it was another defeat, from their fans ?
If we see that the team is  battling away to get the results we all want, but falls short, we will acknowledge that effort.
This league is so demanding.
The season is long and hard, and we still have about a third of it left to go.
Right, who have we got to play the next few Saturday's then ?
Lets have a look.
Maidstone, Worthing and then the long trip to Truro.
Oh for crying out loud !
It doesn't get any easier, does it ?
This run of bad results will change.
I'm sure of it.
All us Rebels' fans are behind you Scotty.
Never doubt it.
COYR ! 
 
 

Another cracking away blog HR 

[Reading Rebel]

17 hours ago, Bernie Gogan said:

Pretty much how I felt HR. Pleased to have Edon back, but went to the game not expecting very much, but was surprised how good Dorking were. Obviously a full time side with a well stocked squad and when you compare them with the Maidenhead side we beat in December it feels like there are miles between the resources of our club and Maidenhead combined. This of course will be true for most of the sides below Weston Super Mare in our league, even Farnborough! 

One thing, I'm not so sure it was segregated. For instance I entered at the first turnstile as you approach the ground, with an "away" ticket was able to visit "The Lounge" which is upstairs in the main block and then to visit the "Fanzone" thereafter which is situated at the "away" end. Admittedly the end terrace was blocked off apart from a section by the corner flag, but I'm pretty confident I could have gone to the other end if I'd wanted.

Programme at £4 covers 3 Feb games, 2 of which I won't be attending. A bit of a cop out or even a rip off imo, as were the NL level ticket prices (£20 at Maidenhead for example, no programmes there though, and on line versions don't count).

Away Fan experience for visits to NL (or heavily aspirational) clubs: Dorking 6/10, Eastbourne 7/10, Boring Wood 3/10, Kidderminster 4/10, Maidenhead 6/10, Maidstone 7/10, Ebbsfleet 2/10, Bromley 4/10, Woking 2/10.

Having seen Eastbourne, Boreham Wood, Torquay and now Dorking as part of our bad run, I can say Dorking look the best side so far. Onto Maidstone (and Temi Eweka) on Saturday another full time side with only one defeat on the road this season. I'd take a draw!

At the moment Dorking are the hybrid version of a full time side i.e. train 3 days/mornings a week. Although I'm sure even though their players are part time their wages are sure to be far in excess of most other clubs in our division.

Dorking are getting most of their top players back from injury and to even attempt to compete with them we'd have to have a full strength defence and a full strength midfield which has obviously been weakened with the departure of Leon. 

As for entry costs I thought charging £16 for concessions and to then be consigned to a corner of the ground was excessive for this level of football. One question on that, if it was chucking it down was their any cover to stand and watch the game?

 

[SloughFlyer]

25 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

At the moment Dorking are the hybrid version of a full time side i.e. train 3 days/mornings a week. Although I'm sure even though their players are part time their wages are sure to be far in excess of most other clubs in our division.

Dorking are getting most of their top players back from injury and to even attempt to compete with them we'd have to have a full strength defence and a full strength midfield which has obviously been weakened with the departure of Leon. 

As for entry costs I thought charging £16 for concessions and to then be consigned to a corner of the ground was excessive for this level of football. One question on that, if it was chucking it down was their any cover to stand and watch the game?

 

There was cover in the "away end". Don't know what the view was like as it was on the side rather than behind the goal but there was some if needed.

[Holyport Rebel]

RR, below is an old picture of what the covered area we were given looked like.

Its changed a little bit since the pic was taken, but not much.

I was on the highest step right at the back and had quite a decent view, though the steps in it were fairly shallow so don't know what sort of view the people on the lower ones had.

 

 

 

Edited February 3 by Holyport Rebel