Are you on something or just plain blind to the current situation. There was a board meeting this week at which Hall was told funds are available to strengthen the team so one might have thought he would mention in this week's "In the Dugout" that he or Cooke are looking at bringing players in. Instead we are told Baldwin was at the Sheffield game and he is a rugby fan. Great news. Baldwin said if Sheffield are the benchmark the Dons are not far off.Well to be honest I don't think Sheffield are the benchmark and I don't think they were at their best on Wednesday.It is just so annoying to keep hearing the same old comment "We are almost there" as if winning the next game is a solution to the problem. We should be looking to win not just the next game but several more thereafter but even if each and every player gives 150% they are just not good enough to do that this season.

The board meeting was last week, and this was made reference to in last weeks In The DugoutIt probably is great news that Baldwin is a rugby fanI think some of the things Sheffield have achieved off the pitch is a good way of looking to model ourselves on. Whether or not the on field product is one to try and mirror, I do not know. They weren't at their best last night.
There are 1 or 2 players that I was surprised we kept on for this season, but at the same time, I feel that once we get 'over the line' for the first win, we will see the confidence of the players improve greatly. I spend a lot of the time on a matchday around the squad, and the atmosphere over this last couple of matches within the dressing room has been completely different to how it was at the start of the season, I feel that the influx of younger players over the winter months into a squad where everyone knew their place has probably stifled it a bit. Whether this can be used as an excuse, I do not know.

If Baldwin is a big rugby fan why is this his first match then.
As for the dugout back to square one, well carry on with these players cos they're trying.
That's not going to keep us up.
As ever one else fed up of hearing the same things each week.
Good luck to the lads for Monday.

There are plenty of Dons players who are good enough and more. Some were approached by other clubs prior to the season starting but they believed in the future plans of this club. I totally agree that at the moment the right combination of players has not been found yet and some players aren't up to standard...yet.

Not sure if DR or new signings is the answer but be assured we have plenty of talented players who could get places with higher placed clubs in the new season, we need to retain them and get more on board so need to start shopping now!

I can understand the frustrations of those who believe the club aren't doing enough to get us out of the mess we're in. I can also see the point of view that we're getting nearer to our best as each game passes.

I made a post on the Dons v Eagles thread: "The situation that we find ourselves in is that if we play to our absolute best, remain squeaky clean in all areas, have a high completion rate, we may possibly win, but we probably need the other team to not perform to their best.

An example of this was in the Batley game. They were slightly off their game in the first half and we got in front. Once they got their act together, they threatened us with their pace and came out on top.

Why is this? The quality of the players in other teams is superior to ours."

We did really well to finish fourth last season but we won some tight games through guts and endeavour. Guts and endeavour won't go as far against the better quality teams we're playing this season and this is finding us out. Even if we do continue to improve further (after getting better in the last two games) who can we realistically beat in this league?

We have some decent players in our side and I don't like to be critical of them because I have great respect for them but we need an injection of class soon.

With the squad we've got, we may be able to beat Workington and Whitehaven, but are we good enough to beat the likes of Hunslet, Dewsbury and London Broncos? The rest of the teams in the league would really have to have an off day for us to beat them, whilst we'd need to play out of our skin.

With the current squad I believe we may finish third from bottom if we can get the better of the Cumbrian clubs in our games against them. But I'd hope our aspirations are to do better than that ... but we need some new faces for that to be a realistic possibility.

I don't want to castigate the club for the policy they took to recruit youngsters because they believed it was the right thing to do at the time. In life, we all make mistakes but when we do make mistakes, we need to learn from them and move forwards.

Option 1) Stay as we are and battle bravely to try to finish third from bottom
Option 2) Bring in some quality players to help us compete with the other teams in the bottom half of the table in the hope we can get above teams such as Hunslet.

If Hunslet are the benchmark for the quality of a fourth from bottom team, the evidence from the two games we've played against them shows they're clearly better than us at the moment.

Quick question...

If the club was achieving every target, would people be as quick to praise Club Doncaster as they have been to slag it off??

Quick word....

Accelerate

Whitehaven have conceded 100 points in their last 2 matches ... opportunity knocks.

And not scored any

We're a third of the way through the season there's still time to pull it round as in 2013 but it's still not good enough for some people, yes we haven't won yet but we still need to back the team all the way or where they going to get the confidence from to win while we stand around ripping them let's face it I'd just turn and tell the moaners to do 1 it's not doing the team any favours is it, they will read this crap

If someone from the club ever told a fan or fans to "do one" then I'd never attend a Dons match again.

Fans are entitled to voice an opinion, that is the whole point of this forum.

The club and fans do need to interact and work together though. Unfortunately some of the match day decision taken this year have left me feeling like the fans are seen as an hinderance to the club rather than an ally. We need more than just attending and watching from the stands to keep fans invested in supporting the club.

I know people who have gone from being die hard home and away fans, who stuck with the club through the clubs various financial difficulties and would normally watch whether the dons were winning or losing, who have now lost interested in even attending home matches. I feel that way too to some extent.

It's a tough job running a club like the Dons and they're never going to be able to please all of us all of the time but certain things annoy us that could quite easily be put right. If they're not put right, the fans start to feel detached from the club. A detached fan is much more likely not to attend games and give up on the club. Every fan is vital to this club and we can't afford to lose any.

The In The Dugout with Carl is a very good idea but the fact that no club representative is prepared to invest time by answering questions on here is very poor. If the club want the supporters to be more involved with the club generally, they can start by coming on here and addressing the issues and concerns raised. After all this is the main forum for Dons' supporters. We can't have a fans' forum at the Keepmoat every week but we can have a constant communication between the fans and club on here!!!

Communication is a key element in running any business. The Dons could help themselves a great deal if they improved in this area.

I've spoken to Carl about this subject last weekend, and he said that he won't come on himself, as the last time he was on here, he got very drunk one evening and decided to go off on one at some fans. I know the club are aware of what is said on here, but at the same time, I couldn't get an answer to whether or not someone would be prepared to come on here from the club in some capacity, but I feel that this could be due to the rather vocal posters on here who do not like the way that the club/Club Doncaster are running things.

Thanks for the update, Donny.

We do tend to split into two groups on here: People who support Club Doncaster and people who don't. Those of us who do support Club Doncaster end up trying to answer questions from those who don't support Club Doncaster when we can't answer them properly because we don't have enough knowledge of the internal workings of Club Doncaster. Answers from the club would be helpful although I appreciate that balance sheets and other sensitive information couldn't be revealed.

Issues such as supporters being allowed in the restaurant and car parking issues recently raised could be dealt with quite easily.

I think the club is missing an ideal opportunity to show itself up in a good light with supporters by not having a representative on here.

I've not heard the car parking one...