30th October 2022
The home fixture against AFC Acorns was brought forward a couple of weeks due to the FA Cup game v Ascot United.
So this was the return fixture against Acorns when in September we won 4-1 away. A much improved opposition made things difficult for the Darts in the first half with Jade Charlton having to be alert to an attack in just the 4th minute. A good diagonal ball was met by the Acorns attacker who bore down on the Dartford goal, with Jade making a fine block to keep the ball out of the net.
A series of Dartford attacks resulted in a header from Alicia Gibbs being saved by the keeper in the 7th minute and one from Charlie Torry in the 11th minute just over the bar. It was then mostly Dartford pressure for the rest of the half with Paris Smith (31 mins) and Lizzie Adams (43) having shots saved by the Acorns keeper.
The Darts stepped things up in the second half with Nicha Dyett’s 20 yard effort just over the bar on 56 minutes. Lizzie then followed that up with a similar effort from distance sailing over again.
Really in the ascendancy now, Shauni Griffiths had a great effort on the angle from 18 yards saved (63), followed by a great run in to the box by Nicha, stopped by a foul which the referee rewarded with a corner!
From the corner Nicha’s challenge on the keeper (64) resulted in a bit of a fracas and a yellow card for Nicha.
Really fired up by now, Nicha, put a great ball in to the box which resulted in a round of pin ball before the defence cleared the ball.
Finally a corner and cross in to the box found Shauni unmarked for a simple header – 1-0 Dartford. Two minutes later, another great run in to the box by Nicha saw her taken out by the defender. She stepped up to smash home the penalty in the 86th minute.
The last action again saw Nicha bearing down on goal before cracking the ball from the edge of the box only to see the keeper make another good save (88).
With the final whistle not far away, a 2-0 victory (in front of a crowd of 50) saw the Darts up to 5th place in the league.
The next 2 weeks see us away to Ashford Utd in the League Cup and then the big one on November 13th at home to Ascot United in the 1st Round Proper of the FA Cup.