I'll tell you what and this is not a biased rant, fair play for them winning the first leg and all that but they've got a hell of a shock to come if they were to go up, the standards in that game was light years below league 1. They'd be lambs to the slaughter against most L1 teams.

I was just saying that to a mate, the football on display was abysmal. Dale looked to be trying to get the ball down but the loids seemed content to hoof the ball at every opportunity.

Loid fans singing about going to wemberleeee, it's only half time kids!

I thought that Dale played some neat football. Some of the defending was comical but we can't comment when we have 2 clowns on the books as keepers. I quite enjoyed the match - if not the score....

Do the shuffle

Mr Sussex & Sarf, that was a serious comment. As you sen when you played us the season before last, the standard of a poor league 1 team (us last season) and you was immense. Now admittedly you have improved but not enough to trouble the majority of L1 teams. You've got another fairly big step to compete with the next level up.

Mr Sussex & Sarf, that was a serious comment. As you sen when you played us the season before last, the standard of a poor league 1 team (us last season) and you was immense. Now admittedly you have improved but not enough to trouble the majority of L1 teams. You've got another fairly big step to compete with the next level up.

Give us a fit full squad for the last 3 months

you have had a fitful squad for the last three months,that is why you went from automatic promotion to the playoffs

I thought Darlo had some good players - well they were loaning a few anyway. Steve Foster looked good but the other centre back looked garbage. Tommy wright looked like a clogger but i thought the full back Wiseman did ok most of the time.....

Have you had major surgery recently ?

To be fair the first half we were the better team, and I never saw our second goal coming. We've had some horror luck with injuries, and it continued today. I still say that if we had a fully fit Pawel Abbott all season we wouldn't be needing the play-offs. Not making excuses, as every team has teir fair share of injuries.

its a play on words fit full squad and fitful "fitful"means spasmodically or intermittently

We are missing 4 key players from what would have been our strongest team at the start of the season.

Ryan - unlikely to play for us again
Smith - won't play for us again
Austin - injured
Abbott - injured

So we need to replace Ryan and Smith and get Austin and Abbott back fit to get back to the strength we were.

After that, if we are in L1, obviously we'd at least try and strengthen. Whether we could compete for the required players remains to be seen.

As for the standard of football on display today, it was partly due to the watering of the pitch which made the players like Bambi on ice.

No, no, you have to go further up the league before you can blame anything but the standard of your team. Read some Alex Ferguson, Steve Bruce, Sam Allardyce etc etc... .

Added to which why on earth would you throw your home advantage away by making the pitch unplayable??

Because it doesn't affect the loids as all of their football is played in the air

Remember the time that we went down?

Injuries weren't a factor in their eyes, even though we lost 50 goals worth of players, FACT. But no - this year the Loids are allowed to use the injuries excuse. Well, you should've had more strength in depth, shouldn't you? Remember telling us that?

By the way, how many players have started a game for Darlo this season? Every time I see the goalscorers I realise I've never heard of them before!

Rochdale are a very dangerous and pacy team who break extremely fast and use the wings well.

If they can't use that pace because they can't remain on their feet then we gain an advantage.

Who's your manager like John Beck?

A sad state of affairs when you have to resort to those tactics to get out of the fourth division and beat Rochdale no wonder you couldn't get four thousand during the season.

Dirty underhand long ball loid cloggers

I didn't see the game, Kennedy's goal was a cracker but what the fook was Dales keeper doing for the winner? A piece of goalkeeping that made cockfingers look competent, there no was no need to come for that ball!

If I were Penney I'd use any tactic I could to get out of that 'godawful division' Heavily watering the pitch isn't confined to Darlington by the way.

How many of those 8,064 or whatever were Dale fans, by the way?

And heavily watering the pitch? Hilarious! Is Tommo going to subject The New Williamson Motors Balfour Webnet 96.6 TFM Reynolds Arena Stadium to another worm holocaust to get it back to normal?

And, most importantly, who are Darlo whoring their stadium out to next season? Are you drawing names out of a hat?

Agree with most of that.

I don't really rate Wright that highly, Cummins and Ravenhill were OK but not superb and yes Joachim was awful, never got into the game at all etc etc.

I still think you miss Phil Brumwell in the middle, Q!

Penney is a winner and no doubt he will try and do whatever it takes to win this one.



I'm not certain that watering thepitch was a "tactic" but if it was, well I can't really blame them as we are not at full strength

We've come a long way since Billy Runwell in the middle. God we were crap then.

Although we've come a long way (4 top half finishes in a row, unheard of), we still won't go up this season, we are not good enough. Full strength we perhaps are good enough to even finish top 3, but we aren't near full strength and that team fielded is not good enough IMO.

Oh well, what a shame, never mind eh??

Owt can happen.

Still think turning the wings into mud baths is going to stifle both teams like......

If Stockport couldn't do anything with the dominance they had in the second half I honestly can't see how they are going to get past Darlo now.
They are going to regret that goal they let in at the end big time.

That would be Rochdale......

I don't see how Mr Quakerz can say that Darlo aren't going to go up when technically they can get into league one without winning another game - they just have to be good at penalties...

As for the Dale defence and Darlo players - you can't really judge on one performance whether they are good enough for league one. Chris Westwood used to be a competent defender for Pools' yet he played some howlers in the bigger games so maybe people are being a little harsh on the Dale defender.....

Penalties in a live match situation ?

Why daft?

I think that's a good idea as the players would be closer to a level of tiredness akin to that experienced after extra time.

He who fails to prepare, prepares to fail.

That'll teach me to post right on the back of watching the other play-off!

Take Chris Westwood off?

Based on what you're saying, you wouldn't have players practising penalties as it's not in a match situation.

I'd say practising penalties in front of a few people is more useful an experience than practising in front of no one and I certainly wouldn't say it was daft.

Which was reasonably deduced from your comment that it was one of the daftest ideas you've heard in a long time for Darlo to practise penalties after a game [because] such a scenario cannot be replicated.

Or is there another, more obvious, piece of logic I'm missing?

I couldn't disagree more with that, but I just don't have the inclination to carry on this difference of opinion any further.

Penalties are more to do with psychology than technique. If you're playing at a professional level you should be able to put the ball in the net from 12 yards, but some people's mental strength dictates otherwise. Taking a penalty in a cup final of any sort is much, much more psychologically and emotionally demanding than taking a penalty in front of a section of your fans after a home game. Those external pressures just aren't there, so it's a daft idea.

I'm with Mr MadJohn on this, the shootout after a routine league game is nice idea but it's no more useful than penalty practice in training.

You can't recreate the pressure of a shoot out in a play semi, like for example Chris Westwood who was as cool as frozen cucumber in the shoot out at Tranmere when you'd put him at the bottom of the list of normal penalty takers in a match situation or in training. He had to score and he had the bottle that's what you need and it's something that doesn't come with any amount of practice.

The Germans are great at penalties, and they never one a single World War, I don't know what that tells one, but just wanted to get it off my chest

OK

They didn't win either WWI or WWII

It's all about food with you, isn't it!

Penalties and putting towels on sunbeds really early in the morning.

That's the Germans.

Has a kraut ever missed a penalty, apart from on escape to victory?