Gloucester V Darlington

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H1987
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by H1987 » Mon Sep 09, 2019 9:23 am

I honestly have no real issues with the personnel that have been brought in. AA couldn't possibly have anticipated losing both full backs to one long term injury, and one potentially long term injury for Liddle (i'd be cautious of rushing him back when it's a knee injury). That would challenge any squad in this division. Watson was there to cover for both of them, he's now a regular starter, and we've got Atkinson who was probably not intended to play there - but can clearly do a job. He looks a lot more natural there than Omar - although Omar offers more in an attacking sense.

Aside from that, i think we can be happy with the contributions of Bascome, Donowa, O'Neil, Campbell and particularly Hatfield. Remember, this is a virtually newly assembled squad, who have been asked to play a lot of games in quick succession (ridiculously so, in fact, the more i think on this, it is absurd not to have some of these midweek games scattered around elsewhere).

The defence needs some serious work. I don't know that it's a personnel problem, but we are conceding way too many easy goals, and positioning seems to be an issue. How many times are teams just splitting us in half with ease? That's got to stop. Another way to do it of course, might be to swap Bascome for Omar in midfield to add a little more bite. I think we lose something going forward that way, but deploy Omar and Hatfield to help protect the back four a little more could be an option.

al_quaker
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by al_quaker » Mon Sep 09, 2019 9:43 am

Well Cambell is a centre forward, and a good one at that based on his record for us. In a 442 he's effective, as shown when we play with O'Neill alongside him. But that doesn't negate the second part of your post as to the need for a physical centre forward too - a point which Armstrong himself has raised. I'm sure we could find a massive lump to play up front, but a good physical centre forward (a la Glenn Taylor) won't come cheap.

super_les_mcjannet
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by super_les_mcjannet » Mon Sep 09, 2019 9:56 am

Yarblockos wrote:
Mon Sep 09, 2019 9:20 am
al_quaker wrote:
Mon Sep 09, 2019 8:44 am
Yarblockos wrote:
Sun Sep 08, 2019 9:15 pm

Well, as much as I think he is a good player, Campbell has not proven he could do a job as a centre forward anywhere. The idea that he can seems to be an act of faith on AA's behalf.
And a 1 in 2 record for us this season so far seems to be backing up Armstrong's faith in him as a goalscorer

He does seem at his best when he has someone to hold the ball up alongside him. The only player we have like that is O'Neill. Armstrong has mentioned the need for a physical striker before, so at least he's aware of that gap in the squad. It's not been a great start to the season, but (unlike last season) I'm confident that the manager knows what needs to be done to sort it out. It'll just take some time (and money) to sort out. Now that the (ridiculous) start to the season is over there may be more scope for squad reshuffles.
I note you say Campbell is a goalscorer, but not that he is a centre forward. Tommo has 4 goals, he is also a goalscorer, but he is not a centre forward either. It's a very different role. There is a reason we don't score simple goals . A physical striker (a centre forward) who can get on the end of crosses, can make the right runs, and can muscle his way to a chance would make a world of difference to this team and give us so many more options than we have with at the moment. We need to be over elaborate with a small technical player like Campbell up front.
Thompson only has 3 goals currently and is a wide man who averages 10/12 per season.

Campbell is clearly a centre forward and can play the role, although he can't lead the line in a one up front system. Hence why it works reasonably with O'Neill who can lead the line, although he is still young. Campbell needs a support striker alongside who can do the more physical work and he works in and around that striker. He is a typical of the old big man/little man strike force.

Yarblockos
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by Yarblockos » Mon Sep 09, 2019 9:59 am

Well, according to these posts we don't really have any problems so I fail to see why we are 17th in the table.

al_quaker
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by al_quaker » Mon Sep 09, 2019 10:01 am

H1987 wrote:
Mon Sep 09, 2019 9:23 am

Aside from that, i think we can be happy with the contributions of Bascome, Donowa, O'Neil, Campbell and particularly Hatfield. Remember, this is a virtually newly assembled squad, who have been asked to play a lot of games in quick succession (ridiculously so, in fact, the more i think on this, it is absurd not to have some of these midweek games scattered around elsewhere).
yes - i'm very surprised it happens. I get the reasoning, but it doesn't have to be quite so extreme, which must surely increase the risk of injury to players.
H1987 wrote:
Mon Sep 09, 2019 9:23 am

The defence needs some serious work. I don't know that it's a personnel problem, but we are conceding way too many easy goals, and positioning seems to be an issue. How many times are teams just splitting us in half with ease? That's got to stop. Another way to do it of course, might be to swap Bascome for Omar in midfield to add a little more bite. I think we lose something going forward that way, but deploy Omar and Hatfield to help protect the back four a little more could be an option.
Not sure Hatfield and Holness will offer that much more protection - both are more box-to-box midfielders. We do seem to be missing someone who will just sit there. Of course, that player was meant to be Atkinson, but he's been injured/covering RB/injured.

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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by al_quaker » Mon Sep 09, 2019 10:04 am

Yarblockos wrote:
Mon Sep 09, 2019 9:59 am
Well, according to these posts we don't really have any problems so I fail to see why we are 17th in the table.
:crazy:

Possibly it's more that some people realise that this is a re-building year, there's gaps in the squad which Armstrong himself has said, we've had injury issues to some key players, and people are willing to be patient because there's confidence that Armstrong will over time correct the issues.

super_les_mcjannet
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by super_les_mcjannet » Mon Sep 09, 2019 11:05 am

Yarblockos wrote:
Mon Sep 09, 2019 9:59 am
Well, according to these posts we don't really have any problems so I fail to see why we are 17th in the table.
Plenty of challenges and the start is probably about 4/5 points light from where we should be/like to be. Mitigating circumstances with the injuries, I can see what Armstrong is trying to do and has budget challenges.

What do you think Armstrong should currently do or do more of?

He wants another striker, he wants to get some players back from injury, wants to play more of his first choice and assume he wants two training sessions a week to work on things.

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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by Yarblockos » Mon Sep 09, 2019 11:06 am

al_quaker wrote:
Mon Sep 09, 2019 10:04 am
Yarblockos wrote:
Mon Sep 09, 2019 9:59 am
Well, according to these posts we don't really have any problems so I fail to see why we are 17th in the table.
:crazy:

Possibly it's more that some people realise that this is a re-building year, there's gaps in the squad which Armstrong himself has said, we've had injury issues to some key players, and people are willing to be patient because there's confidence that Armstrong will over time correct the issues.
I'm not disagreeing, it is a re-building year. We are playing with Campbell as a centre forward because AA didn't have the budget to bring in the centre forward he wanted. I am pointing out that playing Campbell as a centre forward is not working for us and that is one of the reasons we are 17th in the table.

Also, our main weakness at the back is in the centre. Simple long balls over the top cause chaos and indecision. You can play Laing as a centre back if you have a team that scores lots of goals, as Blyth did last season, when you aren't scoring you can't afford defenders who can't defend.

Vodka_Vic
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by Vodka_Vic » Mon Sep 09, 2019 11:31 am

AA's idea with Campbell is to reconvert him into the centre forward he used to be, as he's been played out wide which is not his preferred position, and given time he thinks he can be successful with him. Now we have more training sessions, hopefully this can be advanced.

50 years
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by 50 years » Mon Sep 09, 2019 2:47 pm

I think some fans have forgotten that AA started with a budget £100k less than last year if my memory serves me right. We have 2 speedy full backs who could support the centre halves but both are injured. Atkinson and Galbraith both carrying knocks. Holmes who for me looked a good player sidelined through injury. Watson, Atkinson and Holness not playing in there "best" positions. Campbell getting used to playing at number 9 again and Heaton has had hardly any game time for over a season. I thought we as fans understood this was rebuilding year on a limited budget but looks like the "instant success" requirement is at the fore front with some still .

To put it in context a team like York have spent big, even tempting players like McNulty to play for them and the manager can still say he has not spent his budget yet, so can bring more players in, and feedback is they are not firing on all cylinders with Watson having a little pop at some fans in latest video. We do not have that luxury unless we as fans are willing to cough up a lot more money and maintain that each season.

We know the players are a bit down and confidence is low so having a pop at individual players won't help that situation. Thank goodness we have some fans in the tin shed who have really got behind the team when we go behind, I admire those lads.

I personally am happy, given everything, that we are on track and moving forward both on and off the field.

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darlo reborn
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by darlo reborn » Mon Sep 09, 2019 3:00 pm

I think the football we are playing this season is light years ahead of the rubbish of last season just need to convert more of the chances we have and confidence will return.

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divas
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by divas » Mon Sep 09, 2019 3:11 pm

darlo reborn wrote:
Mon Sep 09, 2019 3:00 pm
I think the football we are playing this season is light years ahead of the rubbish of last season just need to convert more of the chances we have and confidence will return.
The problem lies in both boxes, it’s very pretty on the eye at times in the approach play but that doesn’t win you points unfortunately.

We need to sharpen up in both boxes, some of the goals we’ve given away are on par with those we were conceding in the first half of last season and concern me more than our attack as we’re always good for at least one goal. It took us a long while to sort that last season and we’ve got another new set of players.

We’ll get there, we’ve not yet had a game where AA has been able to field what he believes is his best team with Atkinson acting as a midfield enforcer. You can’t rebuild a whole team in one summer either. If we managed to cut out a few basic errors we’d fairly quickly climb the table.

en passant
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by en passant » Mon Sep 09, 2019 3:27 pm

It is easy to see that we are well short of being the team that AA set out to run with at the start of the season, and even with better luck with injuries it still may have been a tough season to make headway, especially in the opening rush of games. But we are where we are and have to try and make it work. What I'm uncertain about is where, if we were up to budget with the squad we began with, we get the resources to fund reasonable replacements. We have already made one more signing and are intending to bring in another forward. Is this over-stretching ourselves yet again and living beyond our means? I hope not.

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don'tbuythesun
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by don'tbuythesun » Mon Sep 09, 2019 3:51 pm

A cup run might help!

onewayup
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by onewayup » Mon Sep 09, 2019 5:29 pm

I think AA still has a little cash in the coffers, the fans did boost the budget by £103,000 on top of the original budget allowance. So he cannot claim he had less than last year by much.

50 years
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by 50 years » Mon Sep 09, 2019 7:33 pm

I thought that AA was given £100k less than TW. TW then had boost the budget of £86k, where as AA had boost the budget of £103k so I assume he was at least £80k+ less. Others may have more accurate info than me though, and if people have accurate detail I will bow to there greater knowledge.

quakersfan
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by quakersfan » Mon Sep 09, 2019 7:40 pm

onewayup wrote:
Mon Sep 09, 2019 5:29 pm
I think AA still has a little cash in the coffers, the fans did boost the budget by £103,000 on top of the original budget allowance. So he cannot claim he had less than last year by much.
We have spent the budget so hopefully a good cup run it must be our turn will boost the coffers

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theoriginalfatcat
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by theoriginalfatcat » Mon Sep 09, 2019 8:01 pm

don'tbuythesun wrote:
Mon Sep 09, 2019 3:51 pm
A cup run might help!
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But I’m not the only one............
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onewayup
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by onewayup » Tue Sep 10, 2019 4:12 pm

It was said that the budget would not be blown at the season start ,that they would hold back a little as we would surely need it during the season. Or am I missing something.

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divas
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by divas » Tue Sep 10, 2019 4:59 pm

In the end we needed at the start of the season when we only had a squad of 16 or so

Quakerlad
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by Quakerlad » Tue Sep 10, 2019 8:02 pm

If divas is right, then that really annoys me because they just never seem to learn and we end up in a difficult financial position half way through season or simply cannot sign reinforcements.

Absolutely the board said that we would Not spend the full budget up front as they had learned their lesson the hard way last season. AA knew the budget figure and should have brought players in with that in mind.

At that stage, injuries were not an issue so don’t know why they went against their own stated policy.

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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by Ghost_Of_1883 » Tue Sep 10, 2019 8:26 pm

We shouldn't need to sign re-inforcements because we have a 20 man squad.

However, quite a few of them are injured - we call this "tough luck" and "get on with it"

So you're suggesting that we start the season with say 17 men and a bit of budget left, and then maybe sign another 3 now with the rest of the budget (after all the best players are gone), to cover for injuries? We'd only be in the same net position anyway.

You love a massive whinge don't you?

Darlogramps
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by Darlogramps » Tue Sep 10, 2019 9:25 pm

Quakerlad wrote:If divas is right, then that really annoys me because they just never seem to learn and we end up in a difficult financial position half way through season or simply cannot sign reinforcements.

Absolutely the board said that we would Not spend the full budget up front as they had learned their lesson the hard way last season. AA knew the budget figure and should have brought players in with that in mind.

At that stage, injuries were not an issue so don’t know why they went against their own stated policy.
They didn’t go against any policy.

Probably part of the reason for signing a larger squad than usual was because it was known Bascome and Donawa may head off on international duty on at least two occasions.

In addition you can’t legislate for losing Trotman and Holmes long-term, nor for the number of injuries we did have.

The problem last season wasn’t that we spent the budget fully at the start of the campaign. It was that we spent it fully on poor players.

This time around, I do think our squad is better than last season, albeit there are improvements to be made.

Ultimately, some of our fans will always find something to complain about. Armstrong signs a big squad to cope with a demanding opening five weeks and some crops up to complain.

If he’d signed a smaller squad, then had to bring in more reinforcements, people would have complained he was chopping and changing too much.

Also, given he’s working on a reduced budget, how much are you expecting him to keep back? Saving money up might well be advantageous later in the season, but you still have to get through a difficult opening period, which is all the more difficult when you’re voluntarily reducing your own budget further.
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Quakerlad
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by Quakerlad » Wed Sep 11, 2019 7:08 am

It’s not a massive whinge at all!

Completely agree that the squad is better than last year, think AA is doing a good job and actually enjoy watching us play now, no issues. Had we not had the injuries, believe we would have had a much better start.

All I am saying is that every recent season has seen us unable to sign anyone during season and actually being forced to sell good players simply because we fully spent budget up front.
DJ said a few times that they had learned their lesson and would keep some in reserve in case crowds, income etc lower than forecast and therefore prevent having to sell to keep within budget.

It’s just a realistic observation and question!

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divas
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by divas » Wed Sep 11, 2019 8:48 am

I’m just going off AA’s comments that he’d about maxed his budget before signing Donawa, Bell, Heaton. Maybe that was just the budget that he was allowed at that time that was maxed rather than a “reserve” budget too

MB86DFC
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by MB86DFC » Wed Sep 11, 2019 10:06 am

divas wrote:
Wed Sep 11, 2019 8:48 am
I’m just going off AA’s comments that he’d about maxed his budget before signing Donawa, Bell, Heaton. Maybe that was just the budget that he was allowed at that time that was maxed rather than a “reserve” budget too
That's how I understood the budget situation. I'd be disappointed if we have overspent this year.

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divas
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by divas » Wed Sep 11, 2019 11:33 am

Overspent versus what though? Realistic projections or actuals?

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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by MB86DFC » Wed Sep 11, 2019 12:03 pm

divas wrote:
Wed Sep 11, 2019 11:33 am
Overspent versus what though? Realistic projections or actuals?
If we’ve overspent the total annual budget before income from any cup run is known then I wouldn’t be happy, I don’t mind the spending of the total budget at the start of the year, rather than holding a % aside to cover mid season costs, providing the initial income forecast was conservative.

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D_F_C
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by D_F_C » Wed Sep 11, 2019 12:04 pm

Quakerlad wrote:
Wed Sep 11, 2019 7:08 am
It’s not a massive whinge at all!

Completely agree that the squad is better than last year, think AA is doing a good job and actually enjoy watching us play now, no issues. Had we not had the injuries, believe we would have had a much better start.

All I am saying is that every recent season has seen us unable to sign anyone during season and actually being forced to sell good players simply because we fully spent budget up front.
DJ said a few times that they had learned their lesson and would keep some in reserve in case crowds, income etc lower than forecast and therefore prevent having to sell to keep within budget.

It’s just a realistic observation and question!
When you talk about keeping some in reserve. Is that keeping some of AA's playing budget in reserve, or DJ keeping some funds in reverse just in case?

Darlo My Darlo
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Re: Gloucester V Darlington

Post by Darlo My Darlo » Mon Sep 23, 2019 9:42 pm

Is that reverse or reserve?

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