The Dart(s) Board

Looking at all this from a distance (living in Somerset) I can only go by the comments of people who I have known well for many years. All of these people are DFC through and through and have the best interests of the club at heart. If loyal supporters are questioning so many things about performances then this is very worrying. To hear that there is no disciplinary problem, especially given the number of players sent off at this early stage of the season, smacks of management burying their heads in the sand. If they are missing something so obvious then it is no surprise to see footage of goals conceded where the goalie is in no-man's-land. If he was a true leader (as being made skipper would suggest) then he would be off his line dealing with things. My concern from afar is that this campaign is beginning to look like the one two years ago when the club was guilty of sleep-walking into relegation. Something needs sorting quickly and if the management can't see problems as plain as the noses on their faces then perhaps........

Watching Olly's second yellow back i have to say that's ridiculously harsh.
Looks like he was fouled twice before he went to ground and handled it and even then you could argue it wasn't intentional.

The highlights do not show how ridiculous the first yellow given to Olly was. The second was clearly highly contentious as shown in the highlights. Thus my earlier comments regarding the treatment of Olly by the ref in comparison to the opponent number 10 who committed two bad fouls, but was only briefly spoken to after the first, an aerial challenge on the edge of our box in the first half.

I have thought from day one our keeper was awfull , he rushes off his line all the time when he has a covering defender , isnt a very good shot stopper and makes poor choices when we are under pressure , he is responsible for at least 10 goals this season. We desperaly needed a decent CB which i now believe we have , but we need a new keeper too. This alone will probably save us a goal a game and hopefully help turn things around if we can just keep the ball on the floor and score a few more goals.

Trouble is our manager seems to favour our keeper , not sure he has a clue what he is watching half the time ....we have definately reached a new low ...and last nights attendance seems to point out many others feel the same !!!!

Grassbank wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 11:15 am
To pick up a point from a previous post, I have no idea if Henly is good captain material or not. However, what I observe is that opponents' captains spend the entire match in the ear of the ref, constantly complaining and making observations and their opinions known. I am sure that this has an effect, as must they be, or they would not do it. We surrender this opportunity every time that we name our goalkeeper as captain.

Agree with Grassbank. It’s nonsensical to give the armband to a goalkeeper as it’s the least effective position on the pitch to gain some advantage with the match officials, especially as they are now the only player that can debate on field issues without the risk of sanction (apart from obvious reasons!) Several other clubs also have keeper / captain combined roles but surely each can find an appropriate outfield player?

No interview after the game?

Where has it all gone wrong.......

It wasn't that long ago that we were a conference. Premier league club under Burman with the big 5 as a nucleus of our excellent team.
Bradbrook, Hayes,Noble,Burns and Harris..

Those were the days when we were a feared team
Since those days we have been relegated twice and
We are at best an also ran in this Ryman league
Ì can accept that those golden days are long gone but come on ...this present team are trying no doubt but oh for the days when we were a respected team and DFC were a force to be reckoned with.

Babylon wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 4:09 pm Where has it all gone wrong.......

It wasn't that long ago that we were a conference. Premier league club under Burman with the big 5 as a nucleus of our excellent team.
Bradbrook, Hayes,Noble,Burns and Harris..

Those were the days when we were a feared team
Since those days we have been relegated twice and
We are at best an also ran in this Ryman league
Ì can accept that those golden days are long gone but come on ...this present team are trying no doubt but oh for the days when we were a respected team and DFC were a force to be reckoned with.

I believe it stems from lack of ambition at board level, despite the so called five year plans that don’t amount to anything. Sad to say but the decline is obvious since those heady days

Just read the interview made after the game and its the same stuff, refs ruined the game and "we go again", how many times can we "go again",

Think its going to get to the stage if it hasn't already where people start showing there frustration by not turning up to games anymore like it did when dowse was running things,

Hate seeing the club like this but it seems to be a common occurrence of late, where have our Darts gone!

That was a tough watch. I've tried to give Henley the benefit of the doubt, but it is becoming quite clear that he is not good enough. He is making more mistakes than saves at this point.

Smith is looking more settled in defence now, but I still think he would be better off in midfield.

Number Six wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 4:29 pm

Babylon wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 4:09 pm Where has it all gone wrong.......

It wasn't that long ago that we were a conference. Premier league club under Burman with the big 5 as a nucleus of our excellent team.
Bradbrook, Hayes,Noble,Burns and Harris..

Those were the days when we were a feared team
Since those days we have been relegated twice and
We are at best an also ran in this Ryman league
Ì can accept that those golden days are long gone but come on ...this present team are trying no doubt but oh for the days when we were a respected team and DFC were a force to be reckoned with.

I believe it stems from lack of ambition at board level, despite the so called five year plans that don’t amount to anything. Sad to say but the decline is obvious since those heady days

I’ve also said this before - it truly saddens me to see where we are - my dad will be turning in his grave. Just at Xmas 2022 we were conference premier bound - now ……..I’m appalled tbh

The sad thing is ...
For whatever reason this club seems to be just plodding along with very little ambition
Yes PP is full of facilities for us all to enjoy but the main attraction should the DFC 1ST team.
Sadly imho our present squad we have for this league very ordinary .
I hope that they prove me wrong
I have been a Darts fan since 1958 and I love my club but ..sorry..I do not see us returning to the conference league in the near future with our present squad.

In my opinion for us to get back to competing in the National league south we need investment, since we were relegated the National league south has moved on and is a more of a full time league.

I hardly call 90 minutes from promotion 'plodding along '.
We had all This last season and that's how close we came to getting back to the NLS.
Calling for the head of Pennock also doesn't help the situation. If we moan long enough about Ade 's ability we may just get what some want, another hunt for a manager.
Trouble is, it's the same old gripe. It seems to do the loop every season.
Yes we are having a poor start but we were having a worse one this time last year.
Two defeats in nine.
Discipline is my worry, I get that.
But it seems a lot of people want it to all happen now. It's the way of the world I'm afraid.

Babylon says

The sad thing is ...
For whatever reason this club seems to be just plodding along with very little ambition
Yes PP is full of facilities for us all to enjoy but the main attraction should the DFC 1ST team.
Sadly imho our present squad we have for this league very ordinary .
I hope that they prove me wrong
I have been a Darts fan since 1958 and I love my club but ..sorry..I do not see us returning to the conference league in the near future with our present squad.

Barry as a fan since 1953 I can only echo your thoughts after such a dismal display
I stood by the exit with minutes to go and watched us score the third goal and my thoughts were thank goodness a win but we don't deserve it and left as I had enough and needed to get away on time, but as I walked to the car I heard more cheers and not from our fans and it didn't surprise me.

Having looked at the highlights I thought the sending off was harsh/laughable as the ref wasn't even contemplating blowing for a foul on Olly before sending him off for handball.
Secondly, both the players on the end of the wall turned their back on the ball when the free kick was taken. Yes it's easy to blame the keeper but had the two lads faced the ball either one of them could have probably stopped the ball dead on it's way into the net. Shite defending in my opinion.
I wasn't there so cannot comment on the overall performance. But just looking at the 7 minutes gives a very good view on it. How to snatch a point from a almost certain victory.

ozymandias wrote: Thu Oct 02, 2025 5:42 pm Having looked at the highlights I thought the sending off was harsh/laughable as the ref wasn't even contemplating blowing for a foul on Olly before sending him off for handball.
Secondly, both the players on the end of the wall turned their back on the ball when the free kick was taken. Yes it's easy to blame the keeper but had the two lads faced the ball either one of them could have probably stopped the ball dead on it's way into the net. Shite defending in my opinion.
I wasn't there so cannot comment on the overall performance. But just looking at the 7 minutes gives a very good view on it. How to snatch a point from a almost certain victory.

Ozzy, the tv angle doesn’t ‘help’ to portray what happened. I was bang in line with that from our end. There was a massive gap. A MASSIVE one. I said to people around me, “can you see that? - it’s an easy goal!” Henly is 100% to blame for that! His judgement is seriously questionable. Our keeper nightmare continues.