Report

Dartford 2-2 Braintree

Joe Brophy

Dartford’s season showed signs of sparking into life as a gutsy second half performance earned them a second point in as many games as they battled from two behind.

It didn’t look too good for the Darts as they found themselves thoroughly beaten at half time but goals from Murphy and Bradbrook hauled them level.

The Darts begun the game the brighter of the the sides and within five minutes had engineered their first opportunity. Della-Verde collected the ball out wide and stepped inside his man to whip in a terrific cross aimed for Mfula who could only direct wide from close range.

Another good link up has Della-Verde attempt to square the ball into the path of Mfula who couldn’t control it with the goal at his mercy and it was scrambled clear.

Braintree struck first when Sho-Silva was punished for diving into the challenge and attempting to cut out the through ball, only for Wyatt to turn excellently and play in Olyide who took a touch before comfortably slotting the ball past Ibrahim.

Braintree, full of momentum after taking the lead, looked to build on their advantage as they pressed further up the pitch, first Okoye making a darting run and cross that was dealt with, before Braintree fired a shot over the bar.

On the balance of play, Braintree could have been considered unfortunate not to have been two goals up with their fans in full voice and shortly afterwards were given a gift by Elliot Bradbrook who threw his arm in the way of a Olyide shot.

Billy Cook made no mistake punishing the Darts defending by calmly sending Ibrahim the wrong way with a stroked finish, to make it 2-0.

The Darts headed into half time the second-best side and knew they needed to improve.

The first real chance of the second half for Dartford came from a Danny Harris delivery that narrowly evaded the heads of Murphy and Brown.

Any route back into the match for Dartford is almost ended minutes later when a cross from the left was headed home for a third, for Braintree only for the referee to disallow the goal for a foul on white defender.

An end to end half saw both sides carve out good opportunities. First, Hayes had good effort on goal before Olyide sprung the offside trap and raced clear, only to fire wide.

Dartford did take one of their many chances however as a deep cross from Hayes led to Noble heading the ball across the six-yard box into the path of Murphy who used a very cool head to control the pass before deftly faking inside and halving the deficit.

Sensing an equaliser, Dartford ploughed men forward and soon had their rewards. Another deep cross from Hayes, this time from a corner found Bonner who headed back across goal and Bradbrook reacted quickest bring Dartford level with a header from close range.

A rabid Darts attack hastily restarted play in search of a winner that had looked unlikely at half time. Into the closing stages Dartford had looked the more likely side to grab a winner and had one final chance to steal the win but Bradbrook couldn’t convert following a clever through ball from Hayes.

 

DARTFORD FC TEAM: Ibrahim, Harris, Sho-Silva, Bonner, Onyemah, Della-Verde, Brown, Bradbrook (C), Noble, Murphy, Mfula

DARTFORD FC SUBS: Hayes, Cue, Eweka, Coxal

BRAINTREE TOWN TEAM: McDonald, Muleba, Gabriel, Frimpong, Okoye, Shulton, Allen, Crook, Roberts, Olyide, Wyatt

BRAINTREE TOWN SUBS: Wynter, Campbell, Mugabo, Obamwonyi, Bettache

 

ATTENDANCE: 530