Riverside Urchin

I realise it was a very hot day, but because of this we should have gone for gold early with our two best strikers and rested them later if need be. The chances were there but the finishing was poor. Their goalie was good but if we had converted a couple of the four or five chances we had we would have come away the winners.

PS forgot to mention Ricky Parnell. Tried to take notice of his performance and he quietly gets on with the job and an excellent job it is too.

Enjoyable game. Matt Johnson put in a super performance, the two new forwards played well and I look forward to good things from them. A Trialist at No 15 looked promising. We need to see the new signings back from injury, but promising for the future. I still think Stimson is bench material who can provide good support when needed. Tuesday’s should be a good game. But 2-2 against a much fitter faster team was a good result.

Enjoyable game with good performances and if we haven’t we should sign Chris Dickson and Dan Uchechi. Great performances from them. Good to see Nathan back.

Good 1st half with some good performances with some new players looking good. Can’t comment on the goalie as he wasn’t really tested. Saw Nathan warming up, but he didn’t play which was a shame - I hope he’s not injured. Good to see Ricky back again he will be a real asset. The key thing about the second half was Sonny’s performance which was more confident and assured, but we desperately need strikers. Two signings who between them can notch up the goals with young Stimson on the bench as a good sub when needed is my view. Looking forward to the season.

Had to chuckle when leaving the ground I heard a posh voice say to another Dorking supporter ‘lots of riff raff here today!’

I cannot understand how we lost this game. In the first half we were powering forward and not allowing Dorking to be comfortable on the ball. And it was obvious in the the first half they were good. We then came out and held back. It was as if the advice at half time had been we are 3-0 ahead let’s defend and keep the lead. We know this doesn’t work for Hornchurch. The times I have seen us do this and then we either end up drawing or losing. Don’t get me wrong the first half performance was excellent one of the best I’ve seen. Tobi was excellent and although George suffers from teams knowing he leads with his left and they do everything to stop him played a great game. But Sean Marks? I’m not a fan at the moment. I would prefer to see Tobi settled in the first team and playing 90 minutes every week.

I am an Urchin's fan who has been through the highs and the lows - from losing in the second round of the FA Cup to those cold and chilly matches in the Essex Senior League. But am I the only one who has been bitterly disappointed with the performance this year? We didn't fail to get into the play-offs because we lost to Canvey, we failed throughout the year when we played poor sides and lost or drew when the talent in the team should have meant reached the play-offs in style. I, and others, on the Riverside have groaned time and time again when we resort to the long ball when in fact we play much better when we play a passing game. Some posts have referred to the falling supporter numbers well this is because the style of football this year has been unattractive. So often we have played poor teams, allowed them to play and then struggled to win when they have gained confidence. Colin is doing a great job at getting money in, but does, I wonder, the fault lie with the manager and the coaching. Week in week out it's the same old style and only occasionaly do we seem to get it together and play an attractive game. With our talent in the team we should be much much better. We need a change and we need it by July. The fans are great, and the volunteers work endlessly to put on a good show, but we need to sort out the style of play to win back the crowds.