Woking..

[NBDag]

Even if we do finish in the play-offs this season, McMahon should still lose his job. As the progress being made by teams around us is so much more than what we are making under him. Eastleigh Southend and Woking both started this season with a new manager vs the start of last season. They now find themselves sitting on an average of 9 positions higher than where they finished last year. What have we done in the same time? Still 8th, with 4 of the 7 teams above us finishing in the bottom half of the league last year. Still padding the squad if injury prone ghosts and 1 month loan deals. Progress isn’t made by bringing in 3 bench-quality players in the summer. It’s made by changing the manager when it’s clear they aren’t up to it. Unfortunately that became clear for us in November… 2021… So I’ll see you all in Jan ‘24 for the same chat yet again

[Mick Dagger]

We have poor midfield options, not helped by a system which sees them overrun every time we play a half decent team.

[Diggerthedog]

Starting with a wing back system against a side that likes to play in the the channels was criminal from McMahon, has no idea how to set up a team tactically other than attack and worry about the rest later. The fact he had to make two changes and go to a back four at half time sums him up. He got it wrong again, far too frequent I’m afraid. 3 years and £4m he’s had to make us a cert play off side and all we can do is hope to scrape in and pull 3 miracle results out to win it when we do.

[DaggerJoel11]

I was very concerned upon seeing a lineup that placed too much sentiment towards abject defenders off the back of clean sheets against the worst team in the league when it should have been Onariase and Phipps back in.

We were improved after bringing the latter on at half time but by this point it was far too late after a woeful first half in which we were outclassed in every department. The midfield being bullied coupled with Weston tightly marked meant there was zero supply line to the strikers.

Even after getting the most undeserved lifelines from nowhere (lovely goal by the way), we didn't really build on it let alone throw the proverbial kitchen sink. Infact, Woking were so comfortable on the latter stages, partially because we decided to go long against possibly the biggest team in the division - playing into their hands rather than to our own strengths.

Can still go into the play-offs with a win Tuesday but this was a big test of our credentials and we were way off.

[SUSSEX DAGGER]

Todays game is a reality of where we are and how far behind the top sides we really are, how’s has this been allowed to happen oh yeah lack of ambition throughout the club despite the money to suggest otherwise.

Accept mediocre get mediocre FC.

You beat me to it Dog.

Today was a massive wake up call for this club (or at least it should be). When the owners came in they promised great things, with talk of our time in the National League being a mere footnote as we establish ourselves as a football league outfit.

Nearly 5 years on and we have just been outplayed, outfought and out-thought by Woking in the National League, a club with considerably less financial resource than us and, judging by their away support (yes I know there were train strikes but the roads were definitely open today) a declining fanbase compared to their glory days of the mid 90's.

How has this happened? Dog hit the nail on the head. We have a culture of mediocrity at the club and an acceptance that failure is kind of OK. The owners have put a lot of money into the playing side and improved the ground a bit but where they have got it completely wrong is their inability to spot mediocrity at the top. We have a very mediocre MD, a bloke who loves the club and does his best but would any other Non-League outfit want him anywhere near them? Not a chance. Compare that with the Wrexham owners who immediately got rid of the incumbent (also a good bloke with his heart in the club) and got in the man who used to run the Football League. That's called ambition.

Under the MD is a very average manager. Would Darryl be wanted by any top non-league club after his recent performance at the Vic, especially with the money he has had at his disposal. In 5 seasons we have been stuck in mid table, unable to beat many of the sides above us. A top class manager at this level would surely get a better tune from this squad or at least come in and get rid of the dead wood. There are no leaders in this team and that has to be a failure of the manager.

The owners are conspicuous by their absence now too. What has happened to the regular visits by the US cheer leading squad or even Peter and Craig themselves? Feels like they are losing interest and have practically handed over the keys to Thommo to do what he wants with the club.

I would love to be proven wrong and see the owners grow a pair, make a brutal but much need sweep at the top of the club, bring in some real experience and talent to guide us to the next level, but I just don't see it happening. If they do pack it in and sell us on then I think we will spend the next 20 years looking back at an incredible missed opportunity and that is a very sad thought......

Bang on Rampant Duke. On other forums I have been criticised about being negative after I refused to get carried away cos we beat Maidstone away.

One Person suggested it was even better because it was played out in front of one of our investors.

After talking to one of our younger Fans today who is at Unviersity studying economics he was very informative as he has studied the current set up and left me with the feeling that Dagenham and Redbridge FC is a convenient means to an end and can hardly be classed as an investment.

It all looks and sounds a very confusing set up and if DRFC is just a very small cog in a bigger engine then so be it because at least they have put their money in.

Let's be honest here five years into it and we are no further forward then when they came in, except we may now be a bang average National League side that was arguably a poor one when they took over.

If I was thinking it as an investment after 5 years I would have wanted a dam sight more for my buck. The money they have put into the Club must be serving the holding Company some purpose as why would they continue to put money into what looks a bottomless pit with no obvious return.

We are nowhere near a return to the EFL except if we fluke a couple of unexpected results in a play off system that rewards mediocrity.

The Manager still leaves me scratching my head with his selections. Today was leaving out the player who transformed our season which was going nowhere owing to a very dodgy defence.

Once again the defence was found to be wanting the second goal emphasised that .

The rediculous ease that he came inside and found the bottom corner says to keep faith in a defence that managed to keep two clean against a hapless side who were taken apart by York this afternoon was always a risk and so it proved.

Add in the fact that We looked a lot better second half with McCullum putting himself about ,then It leaves me wondering does he ever look at opposing teams before games, because we may have had a better chance if the team had taken the pitch at 4 O'clock had done so at at 3.

Its horses for courses and to me the team that started was completely wrong in view of what is known about the opponents

A lot supporters knew what Woking were going to be about, just look at some of the pre march predictions .

Woking did not let us down and it just amazes me if supporters knew what was coming and expected how did our Manager not.

The same Manager who to me gets to many big calls wrong looks as safe today as he did when he took over . Any impartial observer not drawn into the frenzy and love in would have to ask themselves with the money spent why is this ?

[Mark]

I keep coming back to the feeling that we'll never be a consistently good side under this manager. He never learns his lesson.

We had a mini good spell with 4 at the back but he couldn't wait to revert to the suspect 3. We still have 2 players in the 3 who do not possess the physical or mental characteristics to do the job. Westy is wasted as a wingback, and he has consistently failed to recruit a useful left sided player. The midfield is turgid - a year ago Rance couldn't get in this side when Jones was here but now he plays every week.

We may be close to the playoffs but we're also in a group of ten teams covered by just 6 points - there's very little between them. We should be a lot better than that. Altrincham, Eastleigh, Wealdstone... even Barnet have rebuilt from almost scratch and are above us.

The division is shit this season and it's a missed opportunity that we aren't in better shape to compete with the likes of Woking. I am fed up of watching teams like them win every second ball against us, all-action, playing percentage balls, turning bad balls into good ones with endeavour, swarming on us so we have no time on the ball. It should be the bare minimum but so many times we fall short in this regard.

[Dagdale]

All the above posts are a very good summary why we basically are still where we were 5 years or so ago, I suppose you always will have to have an element of luck going your way whether getting into the final play off places or even to win the final, look at Hartlepool a couple of seasons back, but ever since I've been coming we've always been a hit and miss team ocassionally throwing out a really classy win and performance and a week or two later fold back down to a side most would believe we'd tan, if I'm honest what I believe drives us is we always believe in were eventually get there, having a player central to the pack a motivator maybe a captain in good command of the situation, game in game out and driving the team forward in unity is what we've been missing for ages, this guy will always pull out some great wins but were just so inconsistant, surely why can't it be sorted once and for all and move forward happily?

[Pablo]

Wild inconsistency really is the main issue. We have taken some tonkings from the top sides recently but we have also beaten Chesterfield away this season and ended last with a win over Wrexham that on the day could have been 5 or 6. Equally one can point to Dorking away and last Saturday as examples of serial under performance. Facile as it is to blame the manager I think he has to take some flak for our performances in his time here with the resources he has had. The teams he has assembled, although most of our players have a lot of experience at higher levels and are individually skilful,are physically undersized and often bullied out of matches and his gung ho tactics playing 3-5-2 are too easily countered in a league that prizes strength, aerial power and hard press.

Some of his faults are good ones i.e. he likes to attack and play attractively but I have every doubt that those instincts will be successful

[DaggerJoel11]

An authentic barometer of Daggers' play-off credentials but unfortunately one on which they fell alarmingly short to an extent exceeding the deceptively tight scoreline, as Woking proved far superior in every department.

𝗥𝗘𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧 and Player Ratings from Saturday - https://dagnificent.weebly.com/match-re ... 1-woking-2