Burgess Hill Town v Dartford

Report

Burgess Hill Town 0-1 Dartford Match Report

Joe Brophy

Dartford marched into the first round of the F.A. Cup with a hard-fought 1-0 win against Burgess Hill Town in the final round of qualifying.

Alfie Pavey’s solitary strike was enough to see the Darts into the full competition for successive seasons.

The Darts got off to the perfect start after just eight minutes when Pavey struck from close range after Tom Murphy’s initial effort was spilled by Town keeper Max Huxter.

The quality of Dartford begun to emerge as they pressed to double their advantage. Hayes had a curling effort from the edge of the box before Elliot Bradbrook went close with a header from a free kick.

Burgess took time to grow into the side against the higher division side but threatened an equaliser when Hakeem Adelakun hit a powerful shot wide from long-range.

The Darts saw out a deserved half-time lead but were almost made to pay for a sloppy start to the second half when Aaron Smith-Joseph had a shot deflected over the bar after good build up play from the hosts.

Burgess kept up the press in search of the elusive equaliser and almost snatched it when skipper Gary Elphick headed wide

As the Darts back line soaked up the pressure, Burgess were susceptible to the counter-attack and Brown almost sealed the victory but James Richmond scrambled the ball to safety.

Ultimately it was too no avail and the Darts held on to secure passage into the next round.

The Darts are now in Monday’s draw and are ball 75.

BURGESS HILL TOWN: Huxter, Diallo, Daveral, Elphick (capt), Richmond, Fisk, P.Harding (Nezval 68), Adelakun (Diau 71), L.Harding, Smith-Joseph (Toure 81), Taylor Unused subs: Bennett, Cook, Shaw

DARTFORD: Ibrahim, Harris, Wood, Bonner, Sho-Silva, Noble, Haynes (Brown 80), Bradbrook (capt), Pavey (Mfula 63), Pugh, Murphy (Della-Verde 71) Unused subs: Vint, Coxall,

ATTENDANCE: 873