.png)
Darlington are, like Hereford, a club that went down the ‘Squad Builder’ route pre-season, a route that injected a hugely impressive £136k into manager Alun Armstrong’s playing budget. Players brought in include striker Mark Beck, who returns for a second spell with Darlo, and the ex-Harrogate man has proved to be a cracking signing with 11 league goals already, making him the division’s joint top scorer.
The Quakers were really good to watch at Edgar Street last season in a 1-1 draw they had the better of, and they didn’t do any of the messing about wasting time and trying to con the ref that so many others do. Incidentally, only Miles Storey from the home team’s starting XI that day remains at the club, which probably says something, although what it says is probably bad so I’m not going to think about it.
Much of what was good about Darlo in that match went through Danny Rose in midfield. Rose operates in a player-coach capacity at the club, and has a wealth of Football League experience. If he’s given space he’ll exploit it.
I did tip Saturday’s visitors as my title fancies before a ball was kicked this season at 10/1. They’re currently sitting in fourth place just three points behind leaders Brackley. They’ve looked good so far, beating Southport at Southport, which is never easy, and Kidderminster at Kidderminster, which didn’t used to be easy but seemingly now is. They’ve won four of their last five games to recover from a sticky spell in October. Last Saturday they cruised past Alfreton in the Trophy, winning 4-1 at home. It should be noted that they haven’t won at Edgar Street since Hereford were promoted to the National League North though.
The hosts go into this one thoroughly beleaguered, to the extent that there’s not much point speculating on what the starting XI might be, with so many players out injured or ill, and several as-yet-unknown loanees looking likely to be drafted in. Ryan McLean’s suspension only makes matters worse.
One feels a great deal of sympathy for Josh Gowling in having arguably over half of what would be his first-choice team unavailable. Any concern anyone might have about how the team has been set up tactically this season becomes irrelevant when very few of the best players at the club are available to play. What Is Danny Carey-Bartram doing to these poor lads with his fitness drills? Some sort of SAS survival exercises?
However, that said, when everyone’s back fit it would be good to see Gowling push the boat out and play Barnett and Amadi-Holloway together up front (yes folks, TWO strikers, both at the same time at the same end of the pitch!). I understand that as a young coach wanting to prove how innovative he is he’s keen to put out clever formations tailored to each game for perceived specific threats from any given team, that on paper, or on a computer screen, should be amazingly successful, but in the National League North things tend to be a good deal more prosaic. You need at least one big striker (preferably two – see above) backing into the defenders (who will also be big), a brick wall in the centre back positions, a Luke Haines or Jethro Hanson in midfield to break things up and recycle, and then some little ‘uns with ability in the other positions. The squad, when fully fit, has all of that at its disposal, apart from perhaps a reliable presence alongside Orrin Pendley, although that could easily be Jordon Thompson given his good reputation, and again when he’s fully fit. There’s a potentially very good 4-4-2 there but will that option be used when it becomes an option? If not, and the default tactic once more is to do everything not to concede, play a lone attacker and two defensive midfielders, pray for a chance on the counterattack from a defensive mistake, and then concede anyway, then that sympathy does start to diminish a bit. It’s really not a great spectacle, particularly at home against the lesser lights of the NLN.
Anyway, that fully-fit scenario unfortunately seems to be some way off, so as it’s backs-to-the-wall time it would probably be best for everyone with a stake in the success of the club to put the last four performances to one side, pull together collectively to support whatever team is put out, go for damage limitation between now and Christmas, and hope that some rabbits are pulled out of the loan market hat this week. A few of the quality of Stephen Dawson, brought in a few seasons ago, would be very warmly welcomed indeed.
Last November the club couldn’t stop winning and then the wheels came off. If that situation could be reversed this season, spring could be quite a pleasant experience. There’s an awful lot of season left.
COYW