Cray Wanderers v Dartford Mon 21 Apr 2025

[KentC]

Yes totally agree, proud of the boys effort yet again.
Thought we were slightly unfortunate today.
Yet again a referee who was terrible.

I hope we play a bit more to Ollies strengths, lots of high balls to him that’s tough for him to deal with, with 2 6ft plus strong CBs.
Feel like we need to get him in the game more so he can be effective with his talent.

We go again and see what happens.

[Park Life]

Cray away was always going to be a tough game and if you take this result in isolation, it ain't too bad.
BUT we all know what was at stake so it's a real disappointment.

The performance itself was ok and we did give it a go at the end even with 10 men, but the football gods weren't smiling on us as we hit the bar a few times and some goal line clearances meant we just couldn't get the winner.

It does feel like a defeat though and the players are probably feeling the same but i believe how they react to this result could well define our season.
I have no doubt they are still more than capable of getting us promoted as the league table proves that, it's just how quickly they can put this behind them, starting on Saturday. If they dwell on it too long it could have a negative effect, but they've shown all season their never say die attitude so they've got dust themselves down and go again.

MOTM - Olopade had a very good game but for me it was Hayden Bullas. Another class performance from him.

COYD

[The 5th Searcher]

It just wasn’t to be for us today unfortunately, it was a bloody awful plastic pitch with more rubber than a condom factory and as soon as it started to rain became slippery.

The ref was an absolute joke again today giving everything Crays way and gave us Jack shit which seems to be a very common thing with officials in this league.

I think Bonner wants to come back and play for the Darts again as he certainly seemed to be trying to pull the shirts off our players today, the way Cray celebrated at the end of the game anyone would think they’d just won the league or a cup final.

Not sure exactly what was said at the end of the game but there was a bit of verbals going on between Samir and their No11 and then it all seemed to kick off.

We battled and tried today but just didn’t take our chances when created and didn’t take enough shots we kept trying to walk the ball in. On a shitty slippery pitch that it was with a nasty bounce we had to take more shots from distance.

We can only hope, pray & keep everything crossed on Saturday that the results all go our way otherwise it’s the play off’s for us and at present we’ll be at home to Cray Valley PM.

As for Michael’s sending off I’m certain he received a yellow card in the 1st half which took the ref a very long time to award after letting play go on for so long before then letting the Cray player have treatment and issuing the yellow.
His 2nd yellow was for a very clumsy challenge which as soon as he went in I knew the ref would book him again.

Hayden Bullas got my MOTM as he seemed to control everything in the middle of the park and chased everything down.

Roll on next Saturday and hope for the best.

COYD’s

[Dart of Herts]

Cray away was always going to be a tough game and if you take this result in isolation, it ain't too bad.
BUT we all know what was at stake so it's a real disappointment.

It does feel like a defeat though and the players are probably feeling the same but i believe how they react to this result could well define our season.
I have no doubt they are still more than capable of getting us promoted as the league table proves that, it's just how quickly they can put this behind them, starting on Saturday. If they dwell on it too long it could have a negative effect, but they've shown all season their never say die attitude so they've got dust themselves down and go again.

I agree - well put. Neither desolation nor blind optimism feel like the appropriate response here. Today was a big setback but we are still in a strong position

[Hitchin Dart79]

To the point 1/ Fair play to cray and their new ground. Will always be grateful to them for the loan of Oxford Road 2/ in terms of form or “bottling it” no chance we were poor for 2 months and have been magnificent since….today always had the feel of being a tricky game 3/ whoever tops the league come 5pm Saturday deserves to….I just hope it’s Dartford FC!

[BrianL]

Hugely disappointing having been champions for about 8 minutes. So it comes down to goal difference but to be joint top on points is still quite amazing considering where we were in mid-November, 12th and 14 pts behind Dover (yet Horsham were 15th then).
Train was already booked for Saturday, so will be there in hope and to applaud the team's efforts, but at worst a home tie with Cray Valley PM, then who knows. We dream on.

[Grassbank]

If Michael was booked in the first half incident when the ref has his card out of his pocket in the vicinity of Josh Hill, I believe that it deserves closer inspection. The Cray player went down in a challenge with Michael. The ref played an advantage as the ball broke to the Cray winger. We then won the ball and set off on an attack which ended in their keepers hands. The keeper was in the process of kicking the ball off so that the player could get treatment when the ref decided to stop play, even though it did not appear to be a head injury. If the ref had deemed it a foul challenge worthy of a yellow card, he should surely have immediately approached the player concerned and issued the card. This did not happen.

Tom Bonner chased after the ref and had a long chat with him. The ref then took out his card. It was not clear from my position behind their goal who the card was awarded to. Presumably not Bonner as he finally received a yellow late in the game. I believe that Josh Hill was the only Dartford player near the ref at the time. Fans on the touchline did not believe that anybody had been issued the card, merely that the ref had written something on it. If the card was issued to anybody, it appears it was only issued after the involvement of Bonner as it appeared the ref had shown no intention of taking the card out prior to this intervention. This is clearly not acceptable.

It will make no difference, but it would be interesting to know if that was why Michael was given the first yellow card.

Can anybody clear up this confusion? I would not wish to retire for the evening thinking that Tom Bonner had been refing the game!

[Tony H]

If Michael was booked in the first half incident when the ref has his card out of his pocket in the vicinity of Josh Hill, I believe that it deserves closer inspection. The Cray player went down in a challenge with Michael. The ref played an advantage as the ball broke to the Cray winger. We then won the ball and set off on an attack which ended in their keepers hands. The keeper was in the process of kicking the ball off so that the player could get treatment when the ref decided to stop play, even though it did not appear to be a head injury. If the ref had deemed it a foul challenge worthy of a yellow card, he should surely have immediately approached the player concerned and issued the card. This did not happen.

Tom Bonner chased after the ref and had a long chat with him. The ref then took out his card. It was not clear from my position behind their goal who the card was awarded to. Presumably not Bonner as he finally received a yellow late in the game. I believe that Josh Hill was the only Dartford player near the ref at the time. Fans on the touchline did not believe that anybody had been issued the card, merely that the ref had written something on it. If the card was issued to anybody, it appears it was only issued after the involvement of Bonner as it appeared the ref had shown no intention of taking the card out prior to this intervention. This is clearly not acceptable.

It will make no difference, but it would be interesting to know if that was why Michael was given the first yellow card.

Can anybody clear up this confusion? I would not wish to retire for the evening thinking that Tom Bonner had been refing the game!

Not sure what your point is here GB. The ref clearly decided to let play continue and than caution Michael for his foul challenge at the next stoppage in play. Of course Bonner got involved, as he did later on in the game to influence Michael’s second caution.

[Tony H]

To the point 1/ Fair play to cray and their new ground. Will always be grateful to them for the loan of Oxford Road 2/ in terms of form or “bottling it” no chance we were poor for 2 months and have been magnificent since….today always had the feel of being a tricky game 3/ whoever tops the league come 5pm Saturday deserves to….I just hope it’s Dartford FC!

Couldn’t agree more, well said!

[Sennocke]

Thought that I would feel better this morning , I don't, gutted......

[tommytollbooth]

Sadly we lost the title not yesterday but a couple of weeks ago when we could only draw with bloody Folkestone. I hope we can beat Carshalton next Saturday and go into the playoffs on a winning roll because I can't see Billericay and Horsham dropping points to Cheshunt and Hashtag though we can pray. I just hope it is not a Saturday like some years ago when we were in a N/L South title race with Havant & Waterlooville which went to the last game, I was at Bognor for that game and we were winning and H&W were drawing when I recall Jason Prior scored a late winner for H/W, now that was cruel.

[Lars Resort]

Well I've got Riccay and Horsham both to drop points next Saturday, so we only have to win.
That's another way of looking at things.
Try telling the three managers that it's all over for them next week..
Try telling our lads that it's all over. I hope it's not all doom and gloom in our dressing room.
Whether my prediction comes true or we win the play off final.
WE ARE STILL IN IT.

[Paulcanary]

Well I've got Riccay and Horsham both to drop points next Saturday, so we only have to win.
That's another way of looking at things.
Try telling the three managers that it's all over for them next week..
Try telling our lads that it's all over. I hope it's not all doom and gloom in our dressing room.
Whether my prediction comes true or we win the play off final.
WE ARE STILL IN IT.

We must still believe coz players may read this forum even if they are not allowed to - we are DFC and we must turn up Saturday be positive and win the game …… come on you Darts !!!

[rambo]

I am hugely disappointed with the result. I thought we were the slightly better team and unfortunate not to win thd game. My only gripe is that I feel Olly should have played the whole game.
We have had a great season once the squad bedded down so the final position be it second or third is better than we expected after ten games
If I had to pinpoint why we did not win the league I point to the bad game we played at chesunt at secondly the goal difference. We should gave scored a few more goals against the poor teams and I had a feeling this would bite us in thd bum eventually. I always think a title winning team should have a 20 goal a season man and that is probs where we lack.
I wonder if Billericay and Horsham have top scorers in the 20 range
Oh well here we go again and it’s the lottery of the playoffs again

[Pedro]

I had the same thoughts regarding having a 20 goal per season goalscorer. Looking at the top scorers Akinwande (Billericay) 14 goals and Chris Dickson (Horsham) also 14 goals. - Olly of course on 12 is not far behind. Three Dover players feature in the top 8 scores (on 22, 20 and 19 goals) but top of the tree is Jimmy Wild (Chichester) on 24. So it would seem that Horsham and Billericay both have goalscorers across the team.

[The Futures White]

I had the same thoughts regarding having a 20 goal per season goalscorer. Looking at the top scorers Akinwande (Billericay) 14 goals and Chris Dickson (Horsham) also 14 goals. - Olly of course on 12 is not far behind. Three Dover players feature in the top 8 scores (on 22, 20 and 19 goals) but top of the tree is Jimmy Wild (Chichester) on 24. So it would seem that Horsham and Billericay both have goalscorers across the team.

Callum Jones is our top scorer with 13 league goals.

[Pedro]

So he is - Football Web Pages still has him on 12 also so maybe not updated since before yesterday.

[terrydfc]

The Dutch House pub closed in 2016. The building is now partly a cafe and partly a builders merchants. It would take around 55 minutes to walk to the ground from here.

Perhaps they meant to say the Crossways, which, last time I was in that area of London (many moons ago) was a Burger King

You mean FiveWays and the Burger King went years ago -been a Premier Inn for some time now

its never taken me 55 mins to walk from the dutch house down to there in my life even as a 6month old it wouldnt take that long lol

[M1 South]

I reckon it’s a good 2 x miles walk!! Are you sure you mean the Dutch House & not the Royal?? (Which has been boarded up for a while now!!)

[Lol]

On a more positive note, after "fan" incidents by Dover at PP on Good Friday, Maidscum at the Welling game and a flare on the pitch at a Dorking game, I had a message from a friend of mine who organises the live music at Cray Wanderers/Flamingo Park. He was very impressed with the fact that a few Darts fans stayed behind for the Cray presentations and live music with some good banter between the two sets of fans. This is what non-league football should be about.
There have been some good tribute acts at Flamingo Park and more in the pipeline. If you would like to know about them, give me a shout.