Dorking Wanderers FC: August 2021
The season has started very well as the players have taken to the formation and tactics and executed near flawlessly to see us into 2nd position in the league. It is still early days but the signs are really encouraging.
On opening day of the season we travelled to Concord Rangers and things got off to a good start as Jason Prior flicked on a Bobby-Joe Taylor corner to the backpost with Jamie Bradley-Green scoring on his debut to put us 1-0 up. However, we still showed some weakness in our defending and when it came to half time we were 2-1 down. Albeit it was completely against the run of play. In the second half we persisted and we eventually got the equaliser with Jason Prior heading in from another Bobby-Joe Corner. We even had a goal disallowed with a few minutes to go as James McShane was judged to be a yard off-side.
Post match it was obvious our defence still needed some work and with first choice left back Callum Kennedy out injured, I did what Zealand would do and i turned to the loan market. MK Dons sent me Jack Davies for the season. Physically he is solid and although his technicals and mentals lack double figures, on closer expection his stats are all above a 7 so although not excellent, he doesnt have too many glaring weaknesses. A nice solid option as the season goes on.
Going into our first home game of the save, we were up against St Albans and we blew them away in the first half with three goals (2 for Jason Prior and 1 for Bobby Joe Taylor) as we had 17 shots before half time restricting our visitors to 0 shots. They got a little more into the game as it went on but were unable to break our defence down as we eased into a 3-0 victory. Once again it was set piece heaven as Jason Prior scored from another corner and the penalty spot with Bobby-Joe Taylor looking a class above this league already.
Another match down and another new face as we welcomed James Rowe to the club to provide another alternative in the centre of midfield. Recently at Aldershot town he has typically played in the Vanarama National / League 2 and he looks like an allround clasdy midfield option in an area that will surely suffer the most with fatigue.
His arrival spurred on another good performance as we went away to Braintree Town and although the winning margin was just 1 goal we had in total 30 shots at their goal as we rained in the crosses. New striker Shamir Mullings bagging a headed goal to get off the mark and secure us a 1-0 win. It was a goal I was personally really happy to see as out of all of my new signings Mullings was the one that I was the most nervous about. He doesnt fit the mould of what i usually buy and I can't remember ever buying a striker with finishing under 10 but he fits what I am trying to do with this team and it worked.
It was just 2 days until our 4th and final fixture of August (Who schedules that for part timers?) but we still had time to add another new face to the squad. It was back to the loan market again as we added in Luke Redfearn from Burton Albion for the season. A young centre half and one just to fill the squad out so we have options especially when we get to fixture congestion.
So onto our 2nd home game of the season and this time we welcomed Hungerford Town to the Meadowbank. Within 10 minutes we were 3-0 up as Mullings, Prior and Harris scored goals. James Mcshane and Bobby-Joe Taylor added a 4th and 4th in the second half as despite being unfit from playing just two days prior we came away with a solid 5-0 victory.
Analysis and Thoughts
A great start, 10 points out of 12 and 3 clean sheets from 4 games and goals are flying in as we have 11 from 4 already. The squad is playing well especially Bobby-Joe Taylor who has been superb. Young Jack Davies has 3 assists from left back as the crossing is doing the trick with both Mullings and Prior to aim fo. Prior has 4 goals as well and looks like the striker we need to fuel a promotion push.
The data hub is now starting to fill up with data to get an overview of what is working and the clear stat that stands out is the cross completion rate where we are completing an incredible 38% of all crosses which is way above the league average and its clearly working as our average goals per game of 2.75. The directness of the passing that this tactic relies on was a worry but again so far our pass completion rate is roughly on par with the average for the league but I will keep an eye on it for sure.
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