Things could be worse , they could have you as a fan

Jimmie just be careful not to gloat excessively, even if we can have bragging rights at present.. We were very close to joining them remember

N Jones wrote:

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Two ells in Welling wrote:

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Jimmie just be careful not to gloat excessively, even if we can have bragging rights at present.. We were very close to joining them remember

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 This is very true, we was definitely heading that way, well said  

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 Too true a little gloat but not too much. I think some of their fans are hopeful they will get a reprieve if Truro cannot convince the league they have a waterproof ground next season. Obviously they hope to go to langarth. Planning permission was granted on 15th February but I dont know how far building works have gone. Anything like Cray Wanderers it may take a bit longer than expected.

It is interesting to chat with fans at our home games and see quite a few are fans of other local clubs that come to watch our game when their other team is playing away. They have a more balanced neutral view of us, which is interesting to hear, as the risk of being a fan is one can be blind to the faults - or qualities - in one's team. So I was struck by comments of a Charlton fan who watched us in I think it was Rod's first home game, and the fan said about Danny, "You should have got rid of him two months ago." Bearing in mind the love in Welling fans had towards Danny, Alan being the only one who voiced any concerns, even though we'd been bottom 4 for all but a week of the season, and had only won 5/28 games with Danny, it was a surprise and thought provoking to hear a critical comment about him.

But there is a really clear sighted interview with the Dartford chairman, where he is looking at what went wrong with Dartford this season, and one of their mistakes he sees in retrospect, is that they took too long to make the managerial change. www.kentonline.co.uk/dartford/sport/darts-chairman-shocked-by-relegation-305677/ I've been reading their fan forum during our relegation battle just to see how they were dealing with their own relegation battle, and they pretty much see the same reasons as the chairman. It reflects well on our owners that unlike Dartford they recognised in time it wasnt working with the manager, and that a change was made in enough time for a new manager to have a decent run of games to make a change.

I saw Dartford twice last season, in both games against us, they didnt impress at all, just a really uninspired team with no real quality. I casually thought of watching their home game against Hemel, as it affected our relegation chances, and would have been a dramatic game with so much on the line (it is now clear if Dartford had won that, they'd have stayed up and Hemel would have gone down)and amusing to see Dartford fans response to Dowse revisiting the team he had relegated, but the thought of voluntarily seeing dull Dartford play a third time was more than I could stand, and feel sorry for their fans having to watch that slog of a team each week.

It is not really gloating at their collapse, it is all banter, they would give us stick if we went down, so no problem in giving them stick as well.

Bearing in mind how many divisions there are, it is funny how we usually play in the same division as Dartford. When we were up in the National they were too. We got relegated to NLS, so did they. I just hope this doesnt mean we get relegated next season to join them below! Hopefully they will get promotion, as a packed PVR is a great sight to see. And there is still the chance Torquay's insolvency saves Dartford from relegation, as with 2 months to go until the NLS decide who plays in the leagues next season there is still no news about a buyer for Torquay, so Dartford may still avoid relegation. Incidentally, Taunton have sacked their manager. That's such a shame.

Dartford relegated. Bloody hell. When did this happen?

Jimmie wrote:

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Relegated Dover and will be well funded.

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 Do they have new investors that even their supporters don't know about? 

I'm getting pissed off with the continual childish rants from a certain person here re Dartford FC. Can we please close this thread and concentrate on OUR CLUB please!

Two ells in Welling and The Poet, you totally miss the point of this thread. It is based on friendly banter about them, just like they joke about us.

But it is also a Welling focus, as it is looking at what went wrong with them, so that we learn from those mistakes and don't make them ourselves.

And an update, as they are 6 weeks away from possibly being saved by Torquay's finances, and that unresolved issue is well worth us fans keeping an eye on, because despite what people here who dont understand football banter think, I would much rather we played a local rival like Dartford than a faraway team like Torquay. The club also wouldnt mind Dartford staying up, chatting with someone from the club while renewing my season ticket he was telling me if Dartford are down and Chatham dont get promoted via the play offs our lucrative Christmas double header would be against some fairly distant side that wouldn't be such a money maker for us.

As for "continual childish rants" that is more of an inaccurate childish rant at me. Give me a single example of one from me. I'll wait.

So that's all right then!

It reminds me of some banter I fell into here, Wallop mentioned here about a change of rules on points affecting play offs, and that caught me totally by surprise, as I'd heard nothing about this. I googled it, nothing. NLS is so screwy it would be no surprise if they'd changed the rules without telling anyone... but still, it was all very odd. Then someone reminded of what day it had been posted on - April 1... I love wind ups and had fallen for it, as the best wind ups have a strand of believability about them. He'd have laughed his head off to see me googling his trap! Though obviously there could be no truth to the suggestion I make childish rants (just lucky no one has mentioned me falling into the trap of writing a 10 page reply to Riverstown the other day!).

Dartford have announced most of their players are leaving, their manager won't know their new league, it will be a new squad, hopefully we will have pre-season friendly against them, as it is unlikely we would play them otherwise for a couple of seasons.