Enfield Town 0-2 Dorking Wanderers

[Tally Ho]

Saturday 1st March, kick-off 3pm.

Confident ?

[djwilf]

14 out of 18 pts

We ve lost 3 in a row.

 

Int Womens Day v top of the league.

Theyll be totally looking to keep 1st place.

[Wildlife rescue]

Not unless we can get a striker in that actually scores goals.

My prediction for Sat 0-5 sadly.

I just can't see where the goals will come from in our team.

 

[The Crowing Cockerel]

If Gavin sticks to his tried and trusted formula then we'll have a repeat of Eastbourne - or worse! The Dorking defence will gobble up the hopeful hoofs and their forwards will annihilate us.

[Towningaround]

2 hours ago, Wildlife rescue said:

Not unless we can get a striker in that actually scores goals.

My prediction for Sat 0-5 sadly.

I just can't see where the goals will come from in our team.

 

Anyone considered that after trying a million strikers it may be something to do with the system…the set up…the coaching…the tactics…the overall standard of the build up play?

I mean even Tuesday when it was almost impossible to play football on that pitch, Hornchurch at least looked like they had a system or a plan….whereas we literally sometimes…almost all the time…literally just kicked it as far as we could.

However I agree with you and I can’t see much else other than a 3/4 - 0

[Albury_Walker]

As Greavesie once said it's a funny old game.  I can remember Cheshunt beating Ebbsfleet  (who finished champions) when we was in the N L S  Reese got the winner only a few minutes into the game .  I have to admit it was a backs to the wall in the second half but we held on.  I can remember Ebbsfleet were just as arrogant and cocky as you lot .  It was a pleasure to see them troop out with shock on their faces ☺️

It just goes to show anything can happen in football .

[Barney]

12 hours ago, Towningaround said:

Anyone considered that after trying a million strikers it may be something to do with the system…the set up…the coaching…the tactics…the overall standard of the build up play?

Or the quality of the opposition...?

[No bull Towner]

14 hours ago, Towningaround said:

Anyone considered that after trying a million strikers it may be something to do with the system…the set up…the coaching…the tactics…the overall standard of the build up play?

I mean even Tuesday when it was almost impossible to play football on that pitch, Hornchurch at least looked like they had a system or a plan….whereas we literally sometimes…almost all the time…literally just kicked it as far as we could.

However I agree with you and I can’t see much else other than a 3/4 - 0

It's not all about the system though as the strikers are just pretty shocking....Kasimu might cause the defence problems but he is 99% likely to miss, even a tap in he messes up, he did everything he could to miss the last one if you watch the highlights it went in by accident as was a mishit

[Towningaround]

5 hours ago, No bull Towner said:

It's not all about the system though as the strikers are just pretty shocking....Kasimu might cause the defence problems but he is 99% likely to miss, even a tap in he messes up, he did everything he could to miss the last one if you watch the highlights it went in by accident as was a mishit

I don’t think they have been shocking. Not all of them all of the time.

We have to accept we’re a team that a) doesn’t create many chances b) has a very small % of possession c) is set up to not concede rather than to score for most games d) is playing in the main teams above us who are better

The main role of our forwards is to a) make life harder for the opposition to start attacks…that means making them head it clear rather than being it down…making them clear it long rather than pass it to a team mate…..to win free kicks….if possible to win corners and throw ins in the final third as opposed to allowing opposition to start attacks and re-cycle the ball. 

On this last point I’ve been harping on about two up front for months but if you go back to the Weymouth away game and the last minutes we had no actual forward on the pitch and a clearance went up to Whittaker (I believe?) who couldn’t compete with a centre back and take the ball or force a bad pass and it came straight back into our box for the penalty. It’s small things like this that go so unnoticed so often!!

In possession we’re a team geared around allowing Sam Youngs to get forward and make runs into the box unmarked…..this involved selfless running from the front two…but often that will make scoring harder for the forwards. 

Against Aveley Hutchinson was tasked with dropping deep second half to mark their 6 who was dictating play. Again this is selfless work rate and if someone had done the same v Hornchurch on Charlee Adams who ran the show it may (?) have made life easier? 

Our forwards have been hit and miss. Gavin has signed a shocker in Shakpoke (who recently signed for Maidstone so we will see!!) and that cost the only forward who we’ve had in goalscoring form 3 weeks of football. 

Chukwu has shown something but he’s never getting many goals and I like what I saw with him up front with Hutchinson - and to be fair he’s continued that in the last 2/3 games.

Hish I’m not sure of. He’s capable of some surprising things but equally he offers nothing out of possession and he’s never going to finish many chances - as you say he did all he could to miss the goal he got v Tonbridge (I think it hit his standing legs knee and hit the post from a yard!). I think we’ve been a weaker team with him in it.

In the last three games we’re back to conceding goals….11 in the 3 games…granted Eastbourne were simply too strong but somehow Gavin needs to get us back to being a side that concedes 1 or less because history is showing us if we concede more than 1 goal we lose the game. 

As far as our striker being shocking goes I don’t really agree. Their goalscoring records are pretty poor this season but for me that’s more a set up / tactical / quality of service issue. Gavin is also a master of disruption in terms of allowing forwards time to get going and believing in them once they have…

Hutchinson went 4 starts when he signed with 1 assist and then scored v Chesham, he started the following week and was substituted after 70 mins and then sat on the bench for the next 4 games just when he had got going so Gavin could watch Shakpoke! He then started v Torquay and then scored 3 in a week before being substituted after 55 mins at Weston and then sat on the bench for the next 3 games just as he’d got going (again!) while Chukwu game in. He was back in the win v Chelmsford and was then left out again v Maidstone (for Kuanda) before playing the next 4 where we went 4 unbeaten (Aveley being the best I’ve seen from him) before being left out again for the next 3…..for Hish!

Chukwu went 3 games without a goal….then left out for 4 games…then back in for 3 starts and scored his first goal v Welling….he started next game v Chesham and was taken off and then left out again…..

It’s bonkers management. Each time a forward has scored a goal he’s started the next game and then been taken off and then left out!!! It’s like changing your goalkeeper just because he’s had nothing to save!!

I bet Hish is sh!ting himself for this week 🤣🤣

The forwards are important to us and we’d all like more goals from them but we’d need to play differently for that to happen and I’m not sure we’re good enough for that. 

[Barney]

Good post, and agree with most or all of it - as I mentioned previously, I wonder whether the thinking is along the lines of keeping players fresh, and resting/rotating them, especially if they are expected to put in a big shift in closing down and hassling defenders. With that said, doing this isn't the way to build confidence, get players into form, and (now that we have 2 strikers on the pitch) build understanding / partnerships.

[No bull Towner]

49 minutes ago, Barney said:

Good post, and agree with most or all of it - as I mentioned previously, I wonder whether the thinking is along the lines of keeping players fresh, and resting/rotating them, especially if they are expected to put in a big shift in closing down and hassling defenders. With that said, doing this isn't the way to build confidence, get players into form, and (now that we have 2 strikers on the pitch) build understanding / partnerships.

I too agree with most of it and you make good points Towningaround but when we are in desperate need of goals we can't wait for strikers to 'maybe' hit form, they just need to be capable of getting on to the end of crosses and burying them. We aren't short of quality balls into the box we are just desperately short of strikers who can consistently get on the end of them and make them count. Admittedly with only one up front, whoever it was, lacked support when crosses came in but that has improved with two up front yet apart from Sam no other player forward or midfield is able to score more than once in a blue moon. Earlier in the season the scoring opportunities were few and far between but we now have multiple decent opportunities a game but never put away....blasted over inside 6yd box, put wide, straight down throat of keeper some of them harder to miss than to score but we manage the miss. It's likely a combination of much of what you say but it will be our downfall that ultimately we can't score enough of our chances when we need to be burying them as we concede so many at the other end. So frustrating that we are the 'also rans' 'nearly men' 'the squanderers'. Hope that doesn't get chanted at us Saturday 'we're the mighty wanderers you're the mighty squanderers' but it's true!

[Towningaround]

That’s kind of my point though….we’ve reached the business end and now it’s too late to be ‘waiting’ for a striker to hit form….but Gavin has wasted those opportunities over and over again. Forwards who have hit form he’s tossed aside after 60 mins of not scoring in the very next game….not once or twice but several times…I’d love to know where we’d be if he’d just accepted forwards don’t score in every game and for the large part of most games you have to accept that most of what they’re doing is largely unnoticed…

Honestly who here has eyes that largely follow the ball? We all have to a degree…so how many of us watch a forwards run when the ball actually doesn’t reach him? We will most often only recognise the work a forward does when it’s results in him actually receiving the ball - very rarely if it’s intercepted or doesn’t reach him and even less so when he’s made a sacrificial run to allow someone else space. 

[Tally Ho]

Kick-off is now 3.45pm.

Dorking team bus is running late.

[Tally Ho]

[Towningaround]

On 27/02/2025 at 16:01, Towningaround said:

It’s bonkers management. Each time a forward has scored a goal he’s started the next game and then been taken off and then left out!!! It’s like changing your goalkeeper just because he’s had nothing to save!!

I bet Hish is sh!ting himself for this week 🤣🤣

Ffs 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Tally Ho]

Penalty to Dorking.

Yaaaaaas missed.

[Tally Ho]

0-1. (41)

[Tally Ho]

Attendance : 1,128.

[Tally Ho]

Sub : Bates on, Chukwu off. (65)

PENALTY to Town.

Missed.

[Tally Ho]

Sub : Kasimu on, Benjamin off. (77)