Bradford PA...

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H1987
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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by H1987 » Mon Aug 26, 2019 7:26 pm

I still can't believe we lost that game. Hitting the same post 3 times into the bargain.

For all the flaws with the performance, they scored with the one chance they had. I feel like we were wasteful, and in particular Heaton had two great chances with headers where he missed the target... but we still, overall did enough to at least take a point away. I know that's not how it works, and at the end of the day their keeper did well, i thought they were athletic and competitive, and looked a million miles away from whipping boys, as their start suggested.

Agree with those saying Donowa should have stayed on. He was pushing them back when they tried those weird goal kicks. Don't know why their centre back was taking those, he wasn't getting a lot of distance and it kept doing back, and Donowa was stretching them. We lost that when he went off. I also thought Thommo had a stinker, compounded by a penalty miss, and he really should've been replaced by O'Neil, who again impressed me.

A bad day at the office i didn't think we deserved, but it's compounded by some miserable away results which make our league position look precarious when we don't win at home. I'm not too concerned by the form at home, but we need to sort it out away. I'm still not too disheartened.

Beano
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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by Beano » Mon Aug 26, 2019 7:29 pm

darlobaz791 wrote:
quakerste wrote:
Mon Aug 26, 2019 6:50 pm
One of the issues for me is since we lost Trottman and Liddle we have lost the use of the fullback bombing forward and linking up with Thommo and Rivers.

Atkinson is obviously not fit and doesn't to appear into that mold so like Armstrong said a couple of weeks ago he will have to utilize the loan market.

The sooner Liddle is fit the better as Watson has been seriously exposed recently and was one of the under performers today.

I thought Armstrong got it wrong today and should have started with Donawa out wide with Thommo up top or gave Oneil a start for 45 mins if struggling as he offers a lot more than we have.
THIS. Full backs were weak and I know Atkinson is coming back from injury but it shows how good Trotman is. Donawa played well and I’d not have brought him off. Has AA already got his favourites? He has said that Justin is better coming from the bench?!? I’d play him, Rivers and O’Neil on Saturday giving Campbell and Tommo a rest. If also want a new right back in, maybe give Holliday a chance?
Donawa is raw and exciting but his end product isn’t great. He isn’t ready to start at present.

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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by super_les_mcjannet » Mon Aug 26, 2019 7:37 pm

Beano wrote:
Mon Aug 26, 2019 7:29 pm
darlobaz791 wrote:
quakerste wrote:
Mon Aug 26, 2019 6:50 pm
One of the issues for me is since we lost Trottman and Liddle we have lost the use of the fullback bombing forward and linking up with Thommo and Rivers.

Atkinson is obviously not fit and doesn't to appear into that mold so like Armstrong said a couple of weeks ago he will have to utilize the loan market.

The sooner Liddle is fit the better as Watson has been seriously exposed recently and was one of the under performers today.

I thought Armstrong got it wrong today and should have started with Donawa out wide with Thommo up top or gave Oneil a start for 45 mins if struggling as he offers a lot more than we have.
THIS. Full backs were weak and I know Atkinson is coming back from injury but it shows how good Trotman is. Donawa played well and I’d not have brought him off. Has AA already got his favourites? He has said that Justin is better coming from the bench?!? I’d play him, Rivers and O’Neil on Saturday giving Campbell and Tommo a rest. If also want a new right back in, maybe give Holliday a chance?
Donawa is raw and exciting but his end product isn’t great. He isn’t ready to start at present.
Whilst I largely agree, he played upfront with a team sitting back, the times I have seen him do well has been on the wing committing a full back.

AA admitted not playing O'Neill was possibly a mistake but with him not being well I can see why he rested him today, it just didn't work.

Disappointing day, again one step forward and then two back.

quakerste
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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by quakerste » Mon Aug 26, 2019 7:41 pm

Donawa is raw and exciting but his end product isn’t great. He isn’t ready to start at present.
[/quote]

I agree with you he is raw but for me his best position is out wide where he can get a run at people but not centrally where it is congested.

Armstrong should have stuck with the formation we had against Southport against Altrincham with Thommo on the bench as Donawa did enough to keep the shirt.

If Donawa did have a poor game then Thommo would have been chomping at the bit to get back into the team today.

darlo2001uk
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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by darlo2001uk » Mon Aug 26, 2019 8:13 pm

Kings Lynn on Saturday will be very tough - three wins out of three at home for them.

And we all know what will happen against Blyth at home.

Not looking to clever at the moment - still, we're settling in, aren't we...….

LoidLucan
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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by LoidLucan » Mon Aug 26, 2019 8:17 pm

At our best we are more than capable of winning on Saturday.

StevieMardenboro
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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by StevieMardenboro » Mon Aug 26, 2019 8:21 pm

Its early days and I admire those people staying positive but we are really labouring against average teams.

And looking at the table its not like we have had the hardest of starts.

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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by darlo2001uk » Mon Aug 26, 2019 8:25 pm

LoidLucan wrote:
Mon Aug 26, 2019 8:17 pm
At our best we are more than capable of winning on Saturday.
At our best we would have beaten BPA, a team that had scored 1 goal and conceded 18.

We weren't - and didn't.

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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by super_les_mcjannet » Mon Aug 26, 2019 8:29 pm

StevieMardenboro wrote:
Mon Aug 26, 2019 8:21 pm
Its early days and I admire those people staying positive but we are really labouring against average teams.

And looking at the table its not like we have had the hardest of starts.

Other than stay positive after 7 games and whilst not being brilliant we certainly aren't whipping boys, what else do people want to do?

New manager, new squad, budget spent, 2 long term injuries and a budget cut, I am a big believer in you may as well stay positive. Most were happy with midtable at the start and we are moving between just above mid-table and above the bottom six at this early stage.

HarryCharltonsCat
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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by HarryCharltonsCat » Mon Aug 26, 2019 8:35 pm

They deserved the win. Had a game plan and applied it well. They stopped Rivers and Thommo, and we ran out of ideas until the gung ho last 10 minutes.

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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by OnTheTerraces » Mon Aug 26, 2019 8:44 pm

My dad used to say to me as a kid ... if you miss penalties you deserve nothing out of a game.

Thommo needs to pass the baton over to Campbell, his recent penalty was very composed.

Shame we couldn’t convert the penalty and just one of those many attempts.

Big over reaction to the last two games, we could have easily got 6 points. It’s not like we were given a lesson in both games.

I think (hope) it will come good up top, they front 4 need to start converting.

Defence need to switch on a bit more to.

After all this is National League North so we expect mistakes, don’t understand the negativity and toxic attitude of some fans.

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Bradford PA...

Post by Darlogramps » Mon Aug 26, 2019 8:47 pm

StevieMardenboro wrote:Its early days and I admire those people staying positive but we are really labouring against average teams.

And looking at the table its not like we have had the hardest of starts.
What are you wanting? People to start losing their heads after seven games?

Today was frustrating, but we’ve had plenty of those in the past. Hitting the post three times and missing a penalty - on another day you win that comfortably.

From what I’ve seen so far, it’s a big step up from last season in terms of strategy and gameplan. The biggest problem remains going forward, and I’d like to see O’Neill used more often than he has been. But we’re less than a month into the season after massive change in the summer. It’s going to take time to come together.

And now we’re getting to the end of this ridiculously intense start to the season, AA will be able to have more time in training to implement his ideas. And TBF, I think most fans recognise this. darlo2001uk seems like he’s had a Bank Holiday on the booze but he relishes negativity anyway (a quick check of his post history tells you that).
Last edited by Darlogramps on Mon Aug 26, 2019 8:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Beano
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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by Beano » Mon Aug 26, 2019 9:28 pm

Darlogramps wrote:
Today was frustrating, but we’ve had plenty of those in the past. Hitting the post three times and missing a penalty - on another day you win that comfortably.

From what I’ve seen, it’s a big step up from last season in terms of strategy and gameplan.
Spot on.

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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by real_darlo_85 » Mon Aug 26, 2019 9:43 pm

Went with my 4 year old son today for the first time since the Leamington game at the end of last season. You can't fault the effort but it seemed to me that we were very much ponderous and lacked any ideas to break down a very stubborn and disciplined Bradford PA side. We had a few half chances in the first half but nothing clear cut, then second half we make a substitution switch off and they score, after that it was again very much slow build up play until the last 10 mins. Yes we had little luck hitting the wood work and missed the penalty at the end. What concerned me was that we look lightweight in midfield apart from Hatfield and there is just no cutting edge up top and what I mean by that is that although Campbell and Thompson are skillful and quick, once the opposition have nullified it we have no other routes up top, no other threats off the bench - I know others have disagreed but we do lack height especially up front.

Overall though we enjoyed the match day experience, despite the result and hope to be back again, possibly for the York City match. Also, you know it's not your day when you turn up at the railway station, miss a train by 10 mins, the next train is cancelled and have a 2 hour wait with a overtired 4 year old..but it's all worth it! :thumbup:
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HarrytheQuaker
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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by HarrytheQuaker » Mon Aug 26, 2019 10:27 pm

Don't forget we have played 7 games in 3weeks with players who have full time jobs , hopefully it will settle down a bit from sept onwards

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divas
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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by divas » Mon Aug 26, 2019 10:36 pm

Our shortcomings are also well known by our management team, if he’d had another £50k he probably could have got the goal scorer we needed but he didn’t which is why he was keen to play down expectations at the beginning of the season. We have what the budget allowed and that isn’t enough to build a team that wins most weeks. I’m happy that we’ve got a game plan and players who will graft even if they aren’t always at their best each game. I expect we’ll see plenty more ups and downs throughout the season turning in performances like that against Southport followed up with off days like today

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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by lo36789 » Tue Aug 27, 2019 5:29 am

HarrytheQuaker wrote:
Mon Aug 26, 2019 10:27 pm
Don't forget we have played 7 games in 3weeks with players who have full time jobs , hopefully it will settle down a bit from sept onwards

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So has everyone else in the division right?

This is a little bit of a tangent as well - but are our players full time in their other jobs or mostly part time to support their semi-pro football?

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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by Darlo_Pete » Tue Aug 27, 2019 6:20 am

I don't believe some of the pessimistic opinions on here. On chances created and possession, we should have won. If we had won then we could well be in the play-offs. We are also nearer the play-offs, than a relegation spot.

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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by jjljks » Tue Aug 27, 2019 6:40 am

A couple of points need clearing up for me.
1. Any news on Tez Galbraith? He looked well off the pace from the start and we looked better when Heaton came on.
2. Did Donawa & Bascome get taken off to protect them from injury ahead of their games for Bermuda? Thought their leaving could have been used to give Wheatley some valuable game time, providing he was fit. If he wasn't fit, then what was he doing on the bench?

50 years
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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by 50 years » Tue Aug 27, 2019 7:50 am

Tez was struggling early on as he looked like he pulled something chasing back with the winger. Bascome I thought was off the pace from the start, and was struggling to keep up with the run of play, (I wondered at the match if he had caught O'Neil illness), and think I may have taken him off earlier (but I am no football manager so could be wrong). I like the way we are playing but teams that do there homework and close us down on the wing play and are physical make it hard for us and Bradford looked like they had done there homework, also we do tend to switch off at the back on occasions and yesterday it happened again and we were punished for it, (as usually happens, why can't other teams just hit the woodwork against us 🤔).
Early days, but AA will now have a bit of a task to build up confidence in the team after a "lucky" ,(thier keeper going off), draw away against 10 men and a defeat against a team that has leaked goals and struggled to score, plus the missed penalty, especially Thommo who I personally thing is very much a confidence player.
Saturday is going to be a very hard game against an inform team, but we have pulled the odd rabbit out of the hat before so who knows.

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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by Darlogramps » Tue Aug 27, 2019 8:10 am

lo36789 wrote:
HarrytheQuaker wrote:
Mon Aug 26, 2019 10:27 pm
Don't forget we have played 7 games in 3weeks with players who have full time jobs , hopefully it will settle down a bit from sept onwards

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So has everyone else in the division right?
But it won’t affect everyone equally. Full-time clubs have a distinct advantage during busy times, as will semi-pro clubs with “settled” teams.

For a club that’s got a new squad, having nine matches in around five weeks isn’t ideal, as you have less time to gel.
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H1987
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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by H1987 » Tue Aug 27, 2019 8:20 am

I thought Bascombe was pretty good. I like the way when he picks up the ball, he is always looking for a forward pass. I personally would've put Omar on for Hatfield, especially after his booking moments before hand. Or, alternatively, i think Bell would have been a good sub to make, as the forwards were looking absolutely knackered (understandably) by the end.

I am still slightly in awe that we managed to lose that game. Hopefully, we will steal a win somewhere that is quite so undeserved to balance it out. That's football sometimes. For me, there's no need to be overly concerned.

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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by Ghost_Of_1883 » Tue Aug 27, 2019 8:34 am

Can't believe the people bleating about how unlucky we were because we hit the post 3 times. We barely created anything up front, and didn't deserve anything.

I'm concerned about Campbell - although he has obvious quality, for example free kicks - he just doesn't look like the number 9 that he is supposed to be. Maybe I was too pissed to really take in what was going on in the matches I've seen, but he's never in the box. He needs to be more selfish and get more shots off.

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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by Emdubya » Tue Aug 27, 2019 8:42 am

Darlo_Pete wrote:
Tue Aug 27, 2019 6:20 am
I don't believe some of the pessimistic opinions on here. On chances created and possession, we should have won. If we had won then we could well be in the play-offs. We are also nearer the play-offs, than a relegation spot.
By my reckoning the play-offs are 8 months away.

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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by Darlogramps » Tue Aug 27, 2019 9:00 am

Ghost_Of_1883 wrote:Can't believe the people bleating about how unlucky we were because we hit the post 3 times. We barely created anything up front, and didn't deserve anything.

I'm concerned about Campbell - although he has obvious quality, for example free kicks - he just doesn't look like the number 9 that he is supposed to be. Maybe I was too pissed to really take in what was going on in the matches I've seen, but he's never in the box. He needs to be more selfish and get more shots off.
Nice use of language - apparently pointing out we hit the post three times and missed a penalty is “bleating”. Get a grip.

It was a frustrating day no doubt, there are improvements to be made particularly in the front line. But we’re getting to the point where AA doesn’t have to worry too much about rotating his squad because of the volume of fixtures, and actually can focus on developing his strongest side, which for me includes O’Neill up front.
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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by 50 years » Tue Aug 27, 2019 9:01 am

H1987 wrote:
Tue Aug 27, 2019 8:20 am
I thought Bascombe was pretty good. I like the way when he picks up the ball, he is always looking for a forward pass. I personally would've put Omar on for Hatfield, especially after his booking moments before hand.


Don't get me wrong I like Bascombe, but on the day did not see him get close to a tackle or lay long balls off which is unusual for him, I thought Hatfield was MoM for me by far though can understand where you are coming from with the booking but think we may have struggled more with him off the pitch.

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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by Darlo_Pete » Tue Aug 27, 2019 9:18 am

I think the ref didn't allow enough in jury time, given the drink breaks, all the time wasting by Bradford PA & a whole raft of substitutions, there should have been a few more minutes of injury time. Having said that we could still be playing now & still wouldn't have scored!!!!!

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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by QUAKERMAN2 » Tue Aug 27, 2019 9:29 am

Darlo_Pete wrote:I think the ref didn't allow enough in jury time, given the drink breaks, all the time wasting by Bradford PA & a whole raft of substitutions, there should have been a few more minutes of injury time. Having said that we could still be playing now & still wouldn't have scored!!!!!
Could not believe he only added on 6 mins, sure it is 30 seconds for a sub so that would have been 2 mins at least, then 2 drink breaks would take us to 6 mins.Then add on the time wasting from the flying pig. Reckon he was 3 mins light.May not have made a difference but we were all over them the last 10 mins so who knows


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H1987
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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by H1987 » Tue Aug 27, 2019 10:09 am

At the end of the day, in that time, we blew all of our chances anyway. I'm not sure an extra 3 minutes would have yielded a goal. Especially after a pretty deflating penalty miss.

I'd like to see the highlights again. In particular it felt like Heaton had two very good chances with his head, relatively free headers, and failed to hit the target with them.

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Re: Bradford PA...

Post by theoriginalfatcat » Tue Aug 27, 2019 10:31 am

Ghost_Of_1883 wrote:
Tue Aug 27, 2019 8:34 am
. Maybe I was too pissed to really take in what was going on in the matches I've seen
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