Dartford 6-1 Whitstable Town - We could have given a better account of ourselves, admits Nott

Tuesday 08th March 2011

DARTFORD 6-1 WHITSTABLE TOWN
Kent Senior Cup Quarter Final
Tuesday 8th March 2011
Stephen McCartney reports from Princes Park Stadium
DARTFORD romped into the semi-finals of the Kent Senior Cup by outclassing Ryman League Whitstable Town at a sparse Princes Park Stadium.

The lure of watching Arsenal’s Champions League exit to Barcelona on television proved to be unavoidable for nearly one thousand Dartford supporters as only 274 watched their quarter-final County Cup win over a side that are 50 places below them in the football pyramid.

Twelfth-placed Blue Square Bet South side Dartford took an early lead through Danny Harris, but they let Whitstable Town back into the game and the spirited Ryman League Division One South visitors swiftly levelled through Lloyd Blackman’s good finish before the Oystermen impressed for long periods of the first half.

That was until Jon Main grabbed Dartford the lead - against the run of play - with a quality strike just before the break - before the floodgates opened during a one-sided second half as Adam Burchell marked his return from injury with a brace, and Tom Bonner and substitute Charlie Sheringham got their names on the score sheet.

Dartford manager Tony Burman said afterwards: “I thought the first half, we got a goal early on but they got a goal back. To be fair to them they worked hard, Whitstable, in the first half and put in a little shift in, during the first 45 minutes but second half our fitness has obviously told and we’ve scored some decent goals.”

Whitstable Town manager Peter Nott added: “We were given a footballing lesson in the second half. I think they opened up on us and we couldn’t compete with it. I’m disappointed tonight. First half we were struggling from going a goal behind and we got ourselves back nice and early. We had a good spell and then second half everything we said ‘we had to keep going, keep tight to them and not giving them any room to pull us apart’, we didn’t do.

“I’ve had a bit of a session in there because we’ve had a good run in our league. Dartford are a class above in this level and the reason why we’ve done so well is we’ve all worked hard and we’ve stuck together and we didn’t do that tonight and that’s why it’s so disappointing.”

Dartford made five changes from the side that beat Maidenhead United 3-0 at the weekend, whilst Whitstable Town made three changes from the side that won 2-1 at Walton Casuals.

Burman added: “Listen, we’ve had some good Cup runs this season, we’re still in the Kent Senior Cup now. We’ve had a squad of seventeen and we picked from that and it’s a good team that we’ve picked. You have to be careful, you don’t get the injury side of things in some of these games.”

Whitstable, with only two defeats from their last 13 league games, started brightly and striker Ian Pulman picked up a pass from Ashley Ulph, but his right-footed drive bounced into Deren Ibrahim’s gloves.

But Dartford grabbed the lead inside the eighth minute, following a gift from the Whitstable defence.

Central midfielder James Sherman swept a powerful pass across to right-back Louis Smith, who couldn’t control the ball and Harris pounced on the error and bent a low right-footed angled drive across stranded keeper Shaun Smith from 30-yards, the ball nestling into the bottom far corner.

Whitstable bounced back from that early set-back and following Gareth Cornhill’s high hanging corner from the right, Pulman hooked a looping shot high into the air, which Ibrahim caught at the second attempt, before the young goalkeeper - a Kent Senior Cup winner with Sittingbourne last season - punched away Cornhill’s curling free-kick towards goal from 30-yards.

So it was no surprise that Whitstable deservedly equalised in the 13th minute when Michael Yianni and Cornhill combined down the right to play in Blackman, who drilled a low left-footed shot across Ibrahim into the bottom far corner of the net.

“We knocked it around a bit at one stage,” added Nott. “The pitch out there enables you to do that but we just didn’t believe it.”

Dartford were lethal down the right, with winger Ryan Hayes often cutting inside left-back Ashley Ulph on numerous occasions and that’s how the home side scored their goals.

Hayes, who started his 193th game for the Darts tonight, was denied by a smart low save by Smith at his near post after fourteen minutes, after giving the former Maidstone United defender the run around.

Keeping Dartford at arms length, Whitstable carved out another good chance to take the lead on the half-hour mark.

A kick downfield from keeper Shaun Smith was flicked on by James Peacock and the Dartford defence held off Blackman, who curled a right-footed drive towards the far corner from 30-yards, but Ibrahim dived low to his left to get a strong left hand to block the shot.

But as soon as Dartford regained the lead in the 44th minute, they went on to dominate the rest of the game as Whitstable caved in.

Bonner, out on the left flank, rolled the ball inside for Main, who took a touch, looked up, and cracked a stunning right-footed drive, which curled past the stranded keeper to find the top far corner from 30-yards.

Full timer Main, who is on loan from Blue Square Bet Premier side AFC Wimbledon, received special praise from Burman following that special strike.

“It was a great strike,” said Burman. “We played him tonight because we wanted him to start getting on the scoreshet, which he’s obviously capable of doing. We just think he’s been a bit unfortunate. He still worked hard, though, for the team and tonight it was a quality goal.”

Whitstable faced an uphill struggle when Dartford made the score 3-1 in the 52nd minute.

Harris laid the ball off to Hayes out on the flank and his cross found Main lurking at the far post and his centre was swept across the face of goal by Harris and an unmarked Burchell fired into the net from three yards out.

Harris then released Lee Burns - but Dartford’s leading goalscorer in the Ryman Premier League last season - couldn’t net that first goal of this campaign as his drilled shot went straight down Smith’s throat.

Dartford were desperately unlucky not to score in the 62nd minute when a slick triangular move involving Bonner, Harris and Burchell down the left resulted in Burchell sweeping a right-footed angled drive across Smith and the ball bounced agonisingly off the foot of the far post before the Whitstable keeper pounced on the loose ball.

At the other end, a rare Whitstable raid saw Cornhill whip in an excellent cross from the right flank, the ball narrowly missing the target.

Dartford had a goal ruled out when man-of-the-match Hayes won possession in his own half and released substitute Sheringham, who unleashed a fierce drive, which Smith did well to beat out and Burchell fired the ball into an empty net but the offside flag was raised.

Dartford went 4-1 up in the 69th minute and then it went horribly wrong for plucky Whitstable in the final twenty minutes.

Hayes swung in a corner from the right, which was flicked on to the far post in what was a crowded goal-mouth and Bonner was on hand at the far post to stab the ball over the line from close in.

Dartford scored again, just 70 seconds later, when Hayes was once again the provider, finding Burchell at the far post, who flicked the ball across goal for Sheringham to apply the finish from three yards.

With Whitstable flagging, Dartford turned defence into attack. Cornhill’s cross was plucked out of the air by Ibrahim, who threw the ball to Hayes, who burst forward with energy before released Sheringham, who dragged a right-footed shot past the diving Smith and also wide of the far post.

Burns wasn’t going to score that elusive first goal, heading over following Hayes’ cross and having a goal ruled out for offside.

Burman felt sorry for the midfielder, saying, “It’s just how things have gone for him at the moment. The harder you try the harder it gets sometimes. Again, he’s put in a good shift in the game tonight, he’s had another ninety minutes and fair play to him.”

Outclassed Whitstable’s effort to pull another goal back proved to be in vain. Yianni arrowed a deflected shot just over the crossbar and Cornhill played Pulman through on goal but he was denied by a smart near post block by Ibrahim.

Dartford wrapped up the comfortable night inside stoppage time when Hayes floated in a free-kick from the right and Burchell’s bullet header found the far corner.

Burman added: “All the Cup runs we’ve treated them all in the same way because we want to try and progress into the next round.

“The first half, after the first goal, I wouldn’t say it was a little bit sloppy, I think Whitstable had a good go at us and I think at half-time we sorted a few things out. I just felt we needed to be tighter and we done that.

“It’s difficult because I felt they put a lot into the first half, maybe they were a little bit jaded in the second half.”

Whitstable manager Nott hopes tonight’s crushing defeat doesn’t have any implications when big-spending Whitehawk visit Belmont Road for a league fixture on Saturday.

He said: “You’ve got to be sensible. The league is our priority but I’m just so disappointed. I’ve just said to the boys in there it’s the first time I really needed to see some character and it wasn’t really showing, which was even more disappointing after the good run that we’ve had.

“I felt we would have come here and gave a better account of ourselves and they had a great opportunity to put themselves in the shop window and secondly to show people we have come a long way in a short time but on that performance it was ridiculously poor.”

The former Maidstone United manager added: “We’re not safe (from relegation) yet. We’ve just got to keep picking up points. I’ve got every confidence with the squad we’ve assembled that we’ll do it but I just hope we don’t perform like that again. That was just a horrible performance and I wished it never happened tonight.”

Dartford, meanwhile, are sitting on 39 points from 30 games and have climbed up to 12th place in the table.

They travel to Basingstoke Town on Saturday, a side that came away from Thurrock with a 3-0 win tonight.

Burman said: “We want to go over the 40 point mark. We know it’s going to be a difficult game at Basingstoke. They’ve got a result tonight so that’s their first win for a long time but we’ve got to go there and try and get the three points and that’s what we’ll endeavour to do.”

Dartford: Deren Ibrahim, Matt Jones, Tom Bonner, Joe Bruce, Paul Goodacre, James White, Ryan Hayes, Lee Burns, Adam Burchell, Jon Main (Charlie Sheringham 63), Danny Harris (Tom Champion 70).

Subs: Elliot Bradbrook, Andrew Young

Goals: Danny Harris 8, Jon Main 44, Adam Burchell 52, 90, Tom Bonner 69, Charlie Sheringham 90

Whitstable Town: Shaun Smith, Louis Smith (Steven Lloyd 56), Ashley Ulph, James Peacock, Peter Hawkins, Adam Douglas, Gareth Cornhill, James Sherman (Ant Bodle 56), Lloyd Blackman (Danny Williams 71), Ian Pulman, Michael Yianni.

Subs: Scott Heard, Callum Day

Goal: Lloyd Blackman 13

Booked: James Sherman 28

Attendance: 274
Referee: Mr Lee Venamore (Maidstone)
Assistants: Mr Paul Yates (Maidstone) & Mr Rob Baker (Maidstone)