A late goal by Cameron Evans condemned Dartford to a fifth defeat of the season on home soil, as Taunton Town stole the points in an extremely tight game at Bericote Powerhouse Princes Park.
As far as entertainment goes, this rearranged fixture wasn’t easy on the eye for the 877 supporters on a cold Thursday night. In fact, throughout the ninety minutes, there were probably more yellow cards dished out by referee Mr Harry Wager than clear shots on target!
That being said, however, the truth of the matter is that things just didn’t seem to click in the final third for the hosts. The same can also be said at the other end, as both defensive units were not prepared to give an inch.
Yet, the game offered glimpses of promise during the opening exchanges, with both sides hitting the woodwork. The first to rattle the frame of the goal were the visitors via their third corner within the opening seven minutes. Ollie Chamberlain was the player to strike Ben Dudzinski’s upright, before Nat Jarvis saw his follow-up strike ruled out for offside.
Three minutes later saw Dartford respond with a corner of their own. Luke Coulson’s set-piece couldn’t reach anybody in a Dartford shirt, before the ball eventually found Luke Allen. Unfortunately, the midfielder’s effort smacked the outside of Jack Bycroft’s post before going out to safety (10).
And, that was it as far as opportunities were concerned, as a battle of wits in the midfield commenced until the 36th minute at least. But, once again, the frame of the goal would help Taunton to clear their lines after a brilliant effort by Luke Allen… a delightful curling drive that smashed back off of Bycroft’s crossbar on this occasion!
As the teams returned to the pitch for the second-half, both managers decided to make early changes in personnel. Taunton’s Ollie Chamberlain was replaced by Zac Smith, while Dartford’s Bobby Dunn (who’d been booked in the first-half for a late challenge on Chamberlain) was replaced by Richard Chin.
Whilst on the subject, manager Alan Dowson would go on to replace Jordan Wynter with Keiran Murtagh (56) and Jack Smith came on for Marvin Herschel (80). Meanwhile, the visitors replaced Nat Jarvis with Nick McCootie (74) and Dave Sims-Burgess with Ross Stearn (84).
Once again, the game settled into another midfield battle with very little activity in either six-yard box. However, the hosts did create the first half-chance for Marvin Herschel, but the youngster’s effort was routinely saved by Bycroft (53).
At the other end, Ben Dudzinski had very little to do until the 80th minute, when Dylan Morgan forced him into action to keep out a rare strike on target. Unfortunately, though, the Dartford goalkeeper wasn’t able to keep a clean sheet tonight, as the visitors took the lead seven minutes later.
A corner wasn’t dealt with by the Dartford defence and, as Joe Guest and Lloyd James combined to set up Cameron Evans, the latter sent a low drive from the Taunton right side of the Dartford box and into the bottom corner (87).
Sadly, there wasn’t enough time for the hosts to respond and, to add salt into the wounds, Alan Dowson was sent off by Mr Wager in stoppage time after voicing his displeasure at the referee’s poor decision-making, as frustrations began to boil over.
Tom Bonner’s defensive display earned him the Man of The Match award, but that’ll surely be of little consolation to the club Captain after not being awarded with at least a point on a difficult night under the floodlights.
TEAMS
DARTFORD: Ben Dudzinski, Jordan Wynter, Connor Essam, Tom Bonner (c), Luke Coulson, Luke Allen, Bobby Dunn, Maxwell Statham, Harvey Bradbury, Marvin Herschel, Jernade Meade.
SUBSTITUTES: Richard Chin, Keiran Murtagh, Jack Smith, Pierre Fonkeu, Malachi Napa.
TAUNTON TOWN: Jack Bycroft, Nick Grimes, Dan Ball, Jake Wannell, Ollie Chamberlain, Lloyd James, Nat Jarvis, Joe Guest, Cameron Evans, Dave Sims-Burgess, Dylan Morgan.
SUBSTITUTES: Nick McCootie, Ross Stearn, Zac Smith.
By Chris Palmer