2023/24 Fixtures (still to come..)

[Pink Panther]

The League Cup draw has been made and "participating" Premier Division clubs don't enter until the 3rd Round. As the 2nd Round will produce 16 winners, it's clear that only 16 of the 22 Premier Division clubs have chosen to enter. Personally I'm not that bothered about this competition, with promotion the overriding priority, but can anyone confirm whether or not we'll be in it?

Velocity Cup- draws made - The Pitching In Isthmian Football League

The draws for the first two rounds of our League Cup competition have been made

www.isthmian.co.uk

 

[scousedom]

Opposite view. In no rush to get back in that shithole of a league and am all about crowds of a few hundred under the crisp cold December lights.
But equally eager to learn if we’re in it.

 

[Moroccan Sunset]

Yeh, completely agree with scousedom - I hope we are in it. I've only ever seen DHFC lift 3 cups in my twenty-six years of Dulwiching (London Challenge Cup, 1999; LSC 2004; Isthmian Charity Shield 2013) and I think it's a really poor return. Pretty sure Sutton hoovered up buckets of Surrey Senior Cups on their way to professional football, too, so cups can be taken seriously (!!!) and perhaps even help build a winning culture at a club?

I think given the size of our squad and the number of side salads knocking about, the extra games might be useful. It can't be that many extra games either, can it?

 

[bkbk]

The more midweek games the better as far as I am concerned

 

[scousedom]

Yeh, completely agree with scousedom - I hope we are in it. I've only ever seen DHFC lift 3 cups in my twenty-six years of Dulwiching (London Challenge Cup, 1999; LSC 2004; Isthmian Charity Shield 2013) and I think it's a really poor return. Pretty sure Sutton hoovered up buckets of Surrey Senior Cups on their way to professional football, too, so cups can be taken seriously (!!!) and perhaps even help build a winning culture at a club?

I think given the size of our squad and the number of side salads knocking about, the extra games might be useful. It can't be that many extra games either, can it?

What’s Hak’s Cup record like, do you know? How does it compare to average / Gav…?

 

[Pink Panther]

Yeh, completely agree with scousedom - I hope we are in it. I've only ever seen DHFC lift 3 cups in my twenty-six years of Dulwiching (London Challenge Cup, 1999; LSC 2004; Isthmian Charity Shield 2013) and I think it's a really poor return. Pretty sure Sutton hoovered up buckets of Surrey Senior Cups on their way to professional football, too, so cups can be taken seriously (!!!) and perhaps even help build a winning culture at a club?

I think given the size of our squad and the number of side salads knocking about, the extra games might be useful. It can't be that many extra games either, can it?

Well it won't be that many extra games unless we improve upon our last few years of cup performance.

My main reservation would be the lack of any pool of players outside the first team squad since Gavin's departure. It's great in theory to have games where you can give squad players a run out, but they won't necessarily be scheduled for the times you most want, and any defeat with a less than full strength team will have some supporters complaining that we didn't take it seriously enough.

I'm not averse to entering an additional cup, but if we're choosing to enter an optional competition I'd rather go for the Surrey Senior Cup. It's a far more prestigious competition than any league cup and we still hold the record for winning it most times. It would also guarantee all games were fairly local but mostly not against the same teams we play in the league.

I've seen us play midweek League Cup matches away to Barton Rovers, Bedford Town, Hungerford, Lowestoft, Flackwell Heath and others, all of which were my first visit, although we subsequently played a couple in the league. I counted 13 clubs in the draw that I've never visited, so I'd be happy to see us play at any of those places. However, when some teams don't enter, the competition becomes devalued in my view. Only 57 of the league's 82 clubs have entered, with almost one third (25) opting out.

 

[Stuart Fordyce]

Given I'm only in London midweeks largely now for work, I support midweek cup games.