2018-19 National League North

[AnimoEtFide]

Wasn't it Kayden Jackson? I seem to remember Mills wanted to loan him out and he was with you training for a bit but the move never materialised.

Since leaving us he went to Barnsley, Grimsby on loan then Accrington when he scored 16 goals in league 2. He's currently with Ipswich in the Championship.

So yeah he's pretty good.

That's the one. Probably worked out best for him as a stint with us might have ruined his career.

What on Earth happens when Wrexham or other Welsh clubs try to sign players from English clubs? Surely they don't have to wait months every time for clearance?

 

[AnimoEtFide]

Dont know if Gannon would be under pressure if we lose. I'm not sure there were that many people who seriously thought we'd be title challengers, so if upper play offs is the target it's still a bit early to be panicking. A couple of people on our messageboard will go full drama queen, but that's pretty unrepresentative of the fan base.

I take this all back. That was absolutely dreadful - as bad as I've seen whilst we've been down here. We tried to play a 4-3-3 with three holding midfielders and a number 9 out on the left of the front three. As a result we had zero width, and with Heath packing the midfield we just reverted to lumping it up to Bell. A very Gannon-esque performance in that he seemed to prioritise how we set up over whether we have the players to execute it.

Alfreton were what you'd expect from a Heath side - organised, direct and niggly. It's not much fun to watch, but I'd take that over what we put out there today.

If thing's don't improve soon Gannon will be under pressure. However, we have a silly thing amongst our fanbase at the moment where it's a competition over who should take the blame - the manager or the owners. In reality, it's both.

 

[ForeverUnited]

We were absolutely awful today, BPA thoroughly deserved their 3 points.

 

[Quakerz]

We were absolutely mullered today. The 0-3 scoreline does no justice to Altrincham at all.

We have zero defence and on that showing are in deep deep trouble.

I'm dreading Alfreton next week.

 

[AnthraxDaveHUFC]

As ForeverUnited said, we were awful.
Not quite sure what was up with the players today. Worst performance I have seen from us for some time.
The 1 flattered us. BPA were a decent side.

 

[Railway Blue]

Another dismal defeat for us by an organised and physical Telford side. 2 of their goals were gift-wrapped.

I've just read on Deva Chat that the wife of our GK has taken to twitter to have a go at the fans, who rightly booed the Chester team off at half time.

 

[Bluandwite]

Completely self inflicted defeat for us, can’t make mistakes like we did throughout and expect to get away with them.

 

[Luke Imp]

Another solid signing on paper for Boston in Ben Davies, even if he is 37 now.

Some big names there this season.

 

[DarkSithLord]

Stockport 0-1 Alfreton

Another good away day display today at Stockport

First ever win at Stockport.
First clean sheet of the season. And we move in to the playoffs. Lookig good to be challenging at the right end of the table.

Was a poor game at Edgeley Park really. We made a nervous start but Stockport never really looked like they were going to score. As soon as Denton headed us in front we settled in to the game.

To add to the above the ref David McNamara was pretty poor. He tried his best to give Stockport as many freekicks as possible but in the process made the game very stop start which played in to our hands.
Somehow Denton was denied a second in the second half. Never been offside as Clifton cleared passed the ball backwards in to his path. Awful decison but fortunately it did not matter.

Stockport were bloody awful though. Not sure Gannon can surive a few more performances like that.

On to Southport on Monday. On to another manager in Liam Watson who must be under pressure.

 

[DarkSithLord]

I'll see your ref and raise you ours!
Booked the Nuneaton no. 2 in both halves but didn't show the red, missed so many niggly, dirty off the ball incidents from Nuneaton as well as two blatant fouls in their penalty area, one right in front of the assistant who said and did nothing all game.

After we eventually scored the winner a Nuneaton center back head butted one of his own players and was eventually sent off.

What an awful club Nuneaton have become.

Glad to see you have got that first win under your belts and against Nuneaton of all clubs.

Looking forward to your visit to the Impact in a few weeks.

Have? This is not new. They always have been.

 

[DarkSithLord]

Another solid signing on paper for Boston in Ben Davies, even if he is 37 now.

Some big names there this season.

I see Boston have also signed Cieron Keane. Half decent acquisition. Is a bit rash and has a poor disciplinary record but it a threat going forward.

 

[GuiseleySteve]

Glad to see you have got that first win under your belts and against Nuneaton of all clubs.

Looking forward to your visit to the Impact in a few weeks.

Have? This is not new. They always have been.

Thanks, it turned into a struggle to be honest, probably our worst performance so far after Liburd failed to score with two one on ones in the first 15 minutes. Still we got there in the end.
Never had any issue with Nuneaton in the past but wasn't impressed with their antics today.

 

[Darlo On Tour]

Saturday 25 August 2018 National League North Results

Att. 1,886 - AFC Telford United 3 Chester 1
Att. 725 - Blyth Spartans 1 Chorley 2
Att. 1,210 - Boston United 0 Spennymoor Town 2
Att. 580 - Brackley Town 0 York City 0
Att. 353 - Curzon Ashton 1 Kidderminster Harriers 1
Att. 1,450 - Darlington 0 Altrincham 3
Att. 1,727 - FC United Of Manchester 0 Leamington 2
Att. 528 - Guiseley 2 Nuneaton Borough 1
Att. 2,601 - Hereford 1 Bradford Park Avenue 2
Att. 881 - Southport 2 Ashton United 2
Att. 2,868 - Stockport County 0 Alfreton Town 1

 

[Darlo On Tour]

Darlington 0 Altrincham 3

If you think last weeks performance down at Kidderminster was a horror show, can't describe this shambolic display from a gutless team of useless fuckers.

Once again the defense was all at sea, just like last week. Tom Denton will have a field day next Saturday against our lot. I'm not sure what's going on behind the scenes but these are worrying times for Darlo at the moment, and it's only August.

I disagree with booing a player off the field, especially when most of the other players were just as bad.

I'll take nothing away from Alty they were far too superior, we simply just ain't good enough.

Truly awful today, with a bit of luck we can hopefully make amends on Monday at Hurst Cross.

 

[Darlo On Tour]

Stockport 0-1 Alfreton

Another good away day display today at Stockport

First ever win at Stockport.
First clean sheet of the season. And we move in to the playoffs. Lookig good to be challenging at the right end of the table.

Was a poor game at Edgeley Park really. We made a nervous start but Stockport never really looked like they were going to score. As soon as Denton headed us in front we settled in to the game.

To add to the above the ref David McNamara was pretty poor. He tried his best to give Stockport as many freekicks as possible but in the process made the game very stop start which played in to our hands.
Somehow Denton was denied a second in the second half. Never been offside as Clifton cleared passed the ball backwards in to his path. Awful decison but fortunately it did not matter.

Stockport were bloody awful though. Not sure Gannon can surive a few more performances like that.

On to Southport on Monday. On to another manager in Liam Watson who must be under pressure.

And then on to Saturday with another manager Tommy Wright under severe pressure after the depressing performance today.

 

[Swedes]

We were woeful in the first half against Ashton Utd, we didn't even have a touch in their penalty area until the 25th minute. We thoroughly deserved to be 2-0 down at half time, and the players we're booed off.

Two half-time substitutions later and we looked a different team, attacking at will and creating chances. A driven finish by Astles and a typical back post poachers goal by Gilchrist, and we somehow got away with a point. With respect to Ashton Utd, a point against them is less that what you'd hope for, but we seem generally out of sorts at the moment.

On to Alfreton, where I'm not expecting much but am looking forward to the Tom Denton v Ryan Astles battle!

 

[Railway Blue]

Darlington 0 Altrincham 3

If you think last weeks performance down at Kidderminster was a horror show, can't describe this shambolic display from a gutless team of useless fuckers.

Once again the defense was all at sea, just like last week. Tom Denton will have a field day next Saturday against our lot. I'm not sure what's going on behind the scenes but these are worrying times for Darlo at the moment, and it's only August.

I disagree with booing a player off the field, especially when most of the other players were just as bad.

I'll take nothing away from Alty they were far too superior, we simply just ain't good enough.

Truly awful today, with a bit of luck we can hopefully make amends on Monday at Hurst Cross.

I bet our team of useless fuckers are worse than yours, lol.

 

[eightiesrobin]

A strange result at Darlington, most reports I've seen attest to Darlo's poor defence. I do still worry about the number of chances spurned by Alty, by all accounts could have been a much bigger winning margin. Our first-choice keeper was dropped yesterday, about 10 games too late.

Still, happy for the 3 points, hopefully we can put Guiseley away tomorrow.

 

[B2TF]

Don't anybody spoil it for me, I'm nipping over to have a read of the Chester forum this morning...….

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

The Darlo results don't surprise me that much, they went for a manager when Gray left who built a horrific conf north side which had full time backing, were being funded behind the scenes (now stopped) and had a very good budget......................why on earth in any situation did they assume someone who failed miserably with big backing would somehow do well there???

You appoint crap........you get crap.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

Curzon did very well yesterday, it was an excellent point, very deserved in a qeird game containing 3 missed pens, 10 minutes injury time and a referee injury.....but was 100% a game of two halves.

Curzon dominated the first half, it is maybe telling moreso of how much Kiddy have declined over 2 seasons. 2 years ago they destroyed us, 1 year ago they were better than us but we competed, this year we were in the first half better than them all over park, got a goal lead, should have had more, both sides missing a pen, we really played well that half and were very comfortable.

Kiddy came out second half after a b*llocking and dominated the second half, especially when making their changes, although we were for me holding out very well and defence showed its improved since last year, i just hoped we could hold the first 20 mins, get Niall cummins on and then get ball kept further forward and this bit we did do, so thought we could ride game out, but we fell asleep on a through ball and they were through one on one and in what seemed like slow motion (due to the ridiculous amount of space ahead of our defence he was) they slowly ran forward and slotted home.

game then died down a wee while until ref got injured, letting both refresh and a good battling final 15 minutes where we had to clin on, they missed a pen, but we also had two good chances to win it, good had working point, 8 points from an extremely tough August is excellent.

I am thinking we look much better than i expected headng into the season. If we could have only kept Ben McKenna i think we may even have pushed a play-off spot, but sadly we'll just have to aim for 4th or 5th bottom and know that is a good achievement compared to budget.

We look very very good at the back, god knows what happened vs Chester, but Flanagan has signed two solid full backs to add to our already solid central pairing so we now have a very competant, solid back 4........will grind us out a few points.

but we also now seem to have some dangers there, Connor Hughes easily looks this level, new guy Alex Samizadeh looks very good, but just needs some games for fitness, even Ryan brooke who i find poor for this level looks much better.

 

[Master D]

Is it the Northern Premier Chester will go to from here?

 

[GuiseleySteve]

A strange result at Darlington, most reports I've seen attest to Darlo's poor defence. I do still worry about the number of chances spurned by Alty, by all accounts could have been a much bigger winning margin. Our first-choice keeper was dropped yesterday, about 10 games too late.

Still, happy for the 3 points, hopefully we can put Guiseley away tomorrow.

More than likely, although we still haven't been able to play our best eleven yet due to injuries. It won't happen tomorrow either so a hard fought draw is probably the best we can hope for.

Our first five games have been against teams in the current top seven so not too worried just yet.

 

[eightiesrobin]

Is it the Northern Premier Chester will go to from here?

Yes, AKA doing an Alty / Hyde / North Ferriby

 

[eightiesrobin]

More than likely, although we still haven't been able to play our best eleven yet due to injuries. It won't happen tomorrow either so a hard fought draw is probably the best we can hope for.

I sometimes wonder if Michael Rankine hadn't fired over the bar from 2 yards back in February 2016 when the 2 teams last met, we wouldn't have gone down and the last two years could have turned out very differently.

 

[GuiseleySteve]

I sometimes wonder if Michael Rankine hadn't fired over the bar from 2 yards back in February 2016 when the 2 teams last met, we wouldn't have gone down and the last two years could have turned out very differently.

It was an absolute stinker of a miss but the pitch was in an awful state after all the rain.
Looking forward to tomorrow, always a good away day regardless of result.

 

[DarkSithLord]

Quick turn around on to the Bank Holiday Monday fixtures tomorrow.

Alfreton v Southport
Altrincham v Guiseley
Ashton United v Darlington
Bradford PA v Boston United
Chorley v Curzon
Kidderminster Harriers v Stockport
Leamington v AFC Telford
Nuneaton Borough v Brackley Town
Spennymoor v FC United
York v Blyth


Big game for Tommy Wright at Darlo I feel.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

we ain;t a strong side in league and we ain't going to challenge the top 7, but am sure tomorrow is a massive marker for Chorley because we are their bogey side they never really play well against and hardly get any points from.

If they are a team going to push the top (and not just a strong start then fade away side) they should be playing well against us and beating us.......the very top teams have usually beat us comfortably when at home.

but i think we'll take a point, we are looking very confident currently, I think we've some good morale after a much better than expected start.

 

[eightiesrobin]

It was an absolute stinker of a miss but the pitch was in an awful state after all the rain.
Looking forward to tomorrow, always a good away day regardless of result.

Just watched the highlights again.

I did Rankine a disservice, it was 6 yards out and he actually hit the bar. Yes, what a state the pitch was that day.

That Guiseley side has been doing the rounds of Yorkshire non-league football for the last couple of years!

Emile Sinclair - he played for us for about two days in the brief but catastrophic Neil Young reign.

 

[CFC4LIFE]

S

Curzon did very well yesterday, it was an excellent point, very deserved in a qeird game containing 3 missed pens, 10 minutes injury time and a referee injury.....but was 100% a game of two halves.

Curzon dominated the first half, it is maybe telling moreso of how much Kiddy have declined over 2 seasons. 2 years ago they destroyed us, 1 year ago they were better than us but we competed, this year we were in the first half better than them all over park, got a goal lead, should have had more, both sides missing a pen, we really played well that half and were very comfortable.

Kiddy came out second half after a b*llocking and dominated the second half, especially when making their changes, although we were for me holding out very well and defence showed its improved since last year, i just hoped we could hold the first 20 mins, get Niall cummins on and then get ball kept further forward and this bit we did do, so thought we could ride game out, but we fell asleep on a through ball and they were through one on one and in what seemed like slow motion (due to the ridiculous amount of space ahead of our defence he was) they slowly ran forward and slotted home.

game then died down a wee while until ref got injured, letting both refresh and a good battling final 15 minutes where we had to clin on, they missed a pen, but we also had two good chances to win it, good had working point, 8 points from an extremely tough August is excellent.

I am thinking we look much better than i expected headng into the season. If we could have only kept Ben McKenna i think we may even have pushed a play-off spot, but sadly we'll just have to aim for 4th or 5th bottom and know that is a good achievement compared to budget.

We look very very good at the back, god knows what happened vs Chester, but Flanagan has signed two solid full backs to add to our already solid central pairing so we now have a very competant, solid back 4........will grind us out a few points.

but we also now seem to have some dangers there, Connor Hughes easily looks this level, new guy Alex Samizadeh looks very good, but just needs some games for fitness, even Ryan brooke who i find poor for this level looks much better.

Samizadeh is a good player, got bags of pace and is a competent finisher. Could cause our back line some trouble.