Dartford were back in action yesterday against bottom of the table Concord Rangers at home.
Tony Burmans starting eleven was unchanged from the previous week against Chelmsford City, with the addition of Tony Coxall to the bench whilst Ben Francis and Richard Seixas have headed out on loan during the week with Leatherhead.
For the second week running, there wasn’t any injury news to report.
The game started with both teams having equal possession, with Luke Wanadio once again taking some early chances which we easily saved by Concord’s McNamara.
Chances fell to Elliot Bradbrook and Ryan Hayes but none of the two could convert their chances whilst Concord kept up their defence and hacked away any goal scoring opportunities.
Alex Brown worked well to get the ball forwards to Danny Harris and Duane Ofori-Acheampong but again no goals came within the first 30 minutes of play. Another chance for Wanadio from 35 yards out tested Concord once again, and Dartford pushed on to try and get the lead before half time.
Burman made a change to his starting line up by swapping Wanadio and Hayes to give the game a different dimension and hopefully break down Concord to take the lead.
On the strike of half time, Tom Wynter went down with a knee injury and had to be stretchered off forcing Burman to make bring on Ronnie Vint in his place. The game continued into injury time, and Ofori-Acheampong struck a left foot volley into the top corner to give The Darts the lead ahead of the half time whistle.
Both teams headed back out after half time and Concord seemed to push on searching for their equaliser, which a couple of early chances forcing Deren Ibrahim into a couple of saves.
The Darts were awarded a number of corners in quick succession, and Bradbrook and Hayes worked well to try and get the ball in the net but again Concord pushed back to deny any goals. The second goal of the match fell to Danny Harris on the 59th minute who worked well with Ofori-Acheampong who had crossed the ball in for Harris to finish.
Burman made his second substitute of the afternoon taking Harris off on 65 minutes and replacing him with Andy Pugh. Play continued with a lot of Dartford possession again but no real opportunities came for either team. The final substitution saw Ryan Hayes taken off and Ellis Brown brought on with 12 minutes to go.
Concord managed to grab a goal back on the 85th minute after their counter attack play saw a cross into the box converted into their only goal of the match after some scrappy work in the box by The Darts.
Dartford held off in the final minutes of the game to gain the home win.
After the game Tony Burman said “I thought the game was very tight the first half with our opponents being difficult to break down but it was a good time to take the lead with Duane getting off the mark. We knew the game would open up in the second half and took advantage of that with an excellent goal from Danny. It was disappointing not to increase the lead and to concede a late goal, but the main thing is we added another 3 points to the total.”
Dartford FC: Ibrahim, Gardiner, Wynter, Bonner, Wood, A Brown, Hayes, Bradbrook, Ofori-Acheampong, Harris, Wanadio
Subs: Noble, Vint, Pugh, E Brown, Coxall
Concord Rangers FC: McNamara, Girdlestone, Onyemah, Dowie, King, Ekpiteta, Laucys, White, Morgan, Cawley, Collins
Subs: Dopson, Chiedozie, Topley, Naneti, Renew
Attendance: 842
Man of the Match: Luke Wanadio