Welling United 1-1 Dartford - We've had a real disasterous run, admits Darts boss Tony Burman

WELLING UNITED 1-1  DARTFORD
Skrill Premier
Friday 10^th January 2014
Stephen McCartney reports from Park View Road

WELLING UNITED player-manager Jamie Day says it will benefit his club if their local rivals Dartford escape relegation and maintain their place among non-league’s elite.

Dartford extended their run to fourteen games without a win in all competitions after these two Kent sides cancelled each other out in a disappointing game at Park View Road.

Welling United leapfrogged over Forest Green Rovers into fourteenth-place in the Skrill Premier with 35 points from 25 games, while Dartford remain rooted in the bottom two with 19 points from 27 games, seven points adrift of safety.

Dartford, who had lost their last five games, opened the scoring inside ten minutes when James Stevenson scored his first goal for the club since his loan-move from Conference Premier pace setters Luton Town.

But Welling United restored parity within eight minutes when striker Ross Lafayette scored his eleventh goal of the campaign from the penalty spot – but was forced off through injury a minute before half-time.

“I thought it was a scrappy game,” admitted Day afterwards.

“It looked like two teams that haven’t played for a while.  I thought we lacked a little bit of quality in key areas.

“We didn’t start the game particularly well and we went behind and then we showed a bit of character to get back into it.  We said if we get a good chance in the second half and (we had to take it) and if you don’t take your chances at this level then sometimes you could end up paying the price, like we have done in previous weeks and nearly did tonight as well.

“We’re a little bit disappointed with the performance. Hopefully the rustiness is out of all the players now and we kick on.

“But I think all round the quality wasn’t great from both sides, obviously on our part as well, so hopefully we can improve on that.

“We’ve got a point on the board so that’s a positive I suppose.”

Dartford manager Tony Burman said he was pleased that his side ended their string of ten league defeats on the bounce.

He said: “I thought we played very well, but we’ve lasted the 94-96 minutes. We haven’t conceded in the last 10-15 minutes.  I thought it was just rewards in all fairness.  I think we definitely deserved the point and in the second half we could have won it.”

Burman added: “I suppose the story goes now it’s only one point in 33 or whatever it is but you have to live with that.  I think over the last five or six games we’ve deserved more than what we’ve got. No one can say we’re an absolute poor side or anything like that. We’ve deserved a lot more in the last five or six games and today we’ve put in a decent performance and we’ve got a point. It’s a point but it’s a start.”

There were calls from disgruntled supporters that BT Sport should have screened this game life as part of their coverage of the Skrill Premier – but in truth this Kent derby would have had viewers swapping channels as this game lacked any real quality and goalscoring chances were at a premium.

Just like to Boxing Day clash that Welling United won 2-1 at Princes Park, Dartford scored first – with the first chance of the match.

The Darts played the ball out wide to Danny Harris on the right and he cut inside before finding Elliot Bradbrook at the far post. The skipper took a touch but his shot was blocked by defender Fraser Franks and Stevenson stroked a low right-footed shot into the bottom left-hand corner from ten-yards.

It was the start that Dartford so desperately needed as they bid to escape relegation at the end of the season.

Burman said: “I thought we countered attacked Welling at the start of the game and I thought we got reward for scoring the goal.

“We’ve been in that position before when we’ve been in the lead but for some reason we had a mad ten-fifteen minutes when we gave too many free-kicks away.”

Day said: “We said before how much we wanted a good start and a good tempo and we done the opposite!

“We went behind, a poor goal from our view, but I felt we improved after that and deserved to get one back and then probably just huffed and puffed and didn’t do enough when we needed to so disappointed but we’ll move on and hopefully we can put in a good performance (at home to bottom-side Hyde) on Tuesday and go on a bit of a run.”

Welling United went close within two minutes of falling behind when Day whipped in an in-swinging corner from the right, which was punched away by Dartford keeper Alan Julian and Lee Clarke hooked a right-footed shot over the crossbar from 12-yards.

But The Wings were awarded a penalty when referee Justin Amey spotted Mat Mitchel-King had put his hands on Lafayette inside a crowded penalty area after Day swung in a dangerous free-kick from the right channel.

Lafayette stepped up and his right-footed penalty nestled inside the bottom left-hand corner, despite Julian diving the same way.

Both managers were asked their thoughts on the decision.

“I think if you’re going to climb over people in the box regardless if it’s our box or their box you’re going to get punished for it,” admitted Day.

“From the view I was from the centre half was pretty much going back through him stopping him heading the ball. If it’s anywhere else on the pitch he would have given it!  I would have moaned if it was in our box, but I moan anyway!

Burman added: “We’ve just taken the lead but we put ourselves under pressure and Welling are decent at set-plays and I think it probably could have been a penalty but 100% I don’t think it was a free-kick.  I was disappointed with that but having said that Welling came at us, to be fair to them, but we were giving away too many silly free-kicks and that’s one of their strengths.”

Replying to Burman’s comments, Day added: “I think the share of free-kicks were evenly spread throughout the game.  I don’t see a problem. I thought it was a foul so everyone’s got a different view on certain things.”

The Friday night crowd of 1,336 were then expecting a cracking Kent derby – however, both sides went into their shells and were happy to settle for a point.

Burman added: “You have to be careful with Welling because they’re a good counter-attacking side as well and you’re going forward in numbers and they’re very good on the counter attack and I thought the second half we handled them a lot better.”

Dartford were awarded a free-kick in a dangerous looking position in the final six minutes of a dull first half but Dave Martin’s in-swinging free-kick from 25-yards was blocked by a Welling defender inside a crowded goal-mouth.

But Welling received a massive blow when they lost Lafayette to a knee injury just before the break and was replaced by Luis Cumbers.

When asked about his frontman’s injury, Day replied: “Ross has been excellent this year and he’s our main striker.  Obviously Loick (Pires) is out so hopefully it’s not too serious.

“He’s done his ACL before. He feels it might just be a twinge on that. Hopefully it’s not that and it’s just a little bit of a kick but we’ll get the weekend out of the way, see how it is and assess it Monday-Tuesday.”

The second half improved and Dartford’s second shot on target arrived inside the opening eight minutes of the half.

Martin – who is on loan from Luton Town – swung in a left-footed corner from the right and the ball came out to Harris, who was left unmarked, but his right-footed angled drive brought a comfortable save from Lee Butcher at his near post.

The Darts were enjoying their best spell of the game and a snap-shot from Stevenson from 30-yards flashed across Butcher and past the far post.

Clarke then threaded a fine pass through to substitute Cumbers, but the Welling United striker was thwarted by Julian, who came off his line to smother the ball at the striker’s feet.

Martin, who was Dartford’s main threat, wasted an opportunity eighteen minutes into the second half when he smashed a speculative left-footed free-kick high and wide from 35-yards.

Julian made his best save of the night as the game edged towards the final twenty minutes when quiet central midfielder Harry Beautyman drove forward before drilling a right-footed shot from 30-yards, which forced the Dartford keeper to dive to his left to push away towards safety.

Day said: “H has got through 90 (minutes), so I thought he done well. He hasn’t played a lot recently so he’s another one who will get some minutes in.

“The keeper’s done a good save from Harry and that’s what he can do when he gets on the half turn and he drives forward. He’s got a good range of passing and shooting.  We had one or two chances.  I thought the game lacked a bit of quality and I think it showed. Hopefully now we’ve got all of that out of us, we can produce a better performance.”

Burman added: “I know Alan’s had to make one save from outside the box, but I thought second half we was the better side.”

Set-piece specialist Day was instrumental in carving a chance for his side again when he whipped in an outswinging corner towards the far post and Fraser Franks powered his header on target but Dartford debutant Rory McAuley was there to head the ball clear.

Pugh and McAuley, both 24, were making their Dartford debuts having arrived on a one-month loan from league rivals Cambridge United and McAuley was man-of-the-match.

“They’re two good players,” said Burman, who lost influential players Tom Bonner and Tom Champion to Cambridge United in the summer.

“Andy hasn’t played since, I think, November and we’re hoping he’ll get fit and we’ll do it in the best possible way, but when Andy’s on song – the Welling supporters know – he’s a good player, he’s a good finisher.

“Rory has come in at the back – they’ve only met the players last night and he’s come in and he’s impressed us.

“Everyone put in a fair shift again and today I thought we got the reward.

“They’re two full-time players. Their fitness is up there with the best. They’re well looked after at Cambridge United. They’ve come in and they’ve done ok and I’m pleased for them.

“It’s difficult when you don’t know players or you’ve met them for the first time for a couple of hours the previous night.”

Day, meanwhile, revealed he wanted to bring Pugh back to Park View Road.

“We made enquiries about Pughie but from what I’ve gathered the deal had been done that two players would go to Dartford,” said Day.

“We enquired and we was interested and probably if they had told me earlier we could have done something a bit quicker but they wanted them to go to Dartford and not to us but we have to deal with that and get on with it.

“Pughie is a player who done well for us here and he’s someone that I like. He’s been out for seven weeks.  You’d be taking someone in a position who hasn’t played 90 minutes but he’s got quality and probably would have improved our side but at the moment it wasn’t to be.”

Day could have won it for Welling United, though, in the final 12 minutes when he got his right-footed free-kick over the wall from 30-yards, but Julian stepped to his left to claw the ball towards safety and collecting the bouncing ball at the second attempt.

But as the game appeared destined to peter out into a disappointing draw, Dartford thought they had grabbed a priceless victory with virtually the last kick of the game.

Wings keeper Butcher gifted Dartford a corner, which was swung in to a crowded penalty area by Martin and Mitchell-King’s goal-bound shot was blocked on the line by Conor McLaren and Day made a second painful block and the referee blew the final whistle before Dartford could take the resulting corner.

Those kind of things go against you when you’re at the bottom and Burman was left holding his head in disbelief after Welling escaped.

“It’s in injury time and we want those things to go in,” admitted the Darts boss.

“The players’ have been under a lot of pressure – we all have – and it hasn’t happened but at least we’ve got something from the game and our work-rate and our play deserved that.”

Day had a close up of the incident and praised McLaren, who played in both full-back positions tonight.

He said: “Conor’s on the line – I’ll take credit for it – Conor’s cleared it and I cleared it after that.  Conor done all the hard work.  I’m really pleased for him. He’s been out for a long time with a nasty injury. Credit to him. He’s looked after himself really well, got himself really fit and I thought he was excellent tonight. He’s played in two different positions and didn’t look out of place in either and you wouldn’t know he’s been out for such a long time.

“We’re disappointed that we put ourselves in that position in the first place.  We should have dealt with it and not conceded the corner and luckily for us we got away with it.”

Both managers reflected on the point and Day wants his side to retain their Conference Premier status at the end of the season by finishing with at least 50 points.

Day said: “We looked at it at the start of the season and we aimed to get 50 points.  We started the season really well and you know you’re going to have ups and downs throughout the year.  People get carried away when you go on good runs and other people’s views change where the club should be going and where we should be.

“As a manager and as staff we’re realistic with our targets. We’re still part-time, we’re still a smaller club in this league and we still have an aim of staying in it so that’s not changed for us regardless of how we’ve done and where we are at the moment.

“We think we need five or six more wins to do enough to get to that target and that’s what we’re looking to do.”

Games like tonight are vital to Welling United’s finances and Day hopes his former club retain their Conference Premier status and that Bromley (top of Conference South) and Ebbsfleet United (third-place in Conference South) can join them both next season.

Day said: “I think for us, if you look at it, we’ve played Dartford over the course of the season and we’ve got four points so at the start of the season we would have taken that.  We’d like to get six, but I think the way the game panned out tonight no team deserved to win and it was a scrappy affair.  I think both teams would have settled for a point in the end.

“I’ve known Tony a long time and I don’t think no manager would like to see somebody else in a position that they’ve been in. Hopefully he can turn it round because I wouldn’t like to see Dartford go down. I think for us as a local derby game, it’s one that we want next year and if Ebbsfleet and other teams would come up it’s better for us.

“Hopefully they can turn the corner. He’s a good enough manager, he’s more experienced than me anyway, so he knows what he’s doing.

“But like I say, we’ve got to worry about ourselves. We need to get five or six wins. Hopefully we can do that and hopefully Dartford can stay up as well.”

Burman said: “I think we’ve been decent in the last five or six games and we’ve been playing some decent football and the players have put in a good shift and it’s disappointing for them when they’ve worked so hard and not got anything from the game.

“It’s a small point, in many ways it’s a big point that we’ve had something from the game.

“We’ve had a real disasterous run, you can’t describe it any other way, but it’s a disaster run. The (Dartford) fans have got something tonight so hopefully their pint will taste better tonight when they go in the pub tonight.”

And on stopping the rot, Burman said it’s about time his bad luck comes to an end.

“I think all managers and all their other halves, they know what we’re going through.  You say you don’t take it home and leave it outside but that’s difficult – it does affect you.  She’s (my wife) been used to it as well for all our lives really.

“I haven’t got a cat so I can kick the dog but I might give the dog a little kiss tonight.”

Welling United: Lee Butcher, Conor McLaren, Fraser Franks, Doug Bergqvist, Baily Cargill (Loui Fazakerley 46), Lee Clarke, Jamie Day, Harry Beautyman, Joe Healy, Kurtis Guthrie, Ross Lafayette (Luis Cumbers 44).
Subs: Kiernan Hughes-Mason, Joe Obersteller, Jamie Turner

Goal: Ross Lafayette 18 (penalty)

Booked: Kurtis Guthrie 32

Dartford: Alan Julian, Lee Burns, Mat Mitchel-King, Rory McAuley, Tyrone Sterling, Danny Harris (Ishmal Kamara 87), Alex Woodyard, James Stevenson, Elliot Bradbrook, Dave Martin, Andy Pugh (Nathan Collier 82).
Subs: Josh Hill, George Monger, Deren Ibrahim

Goal: James Stevenson 10

Booked: Dave Martin 59

Attendance: 1,336
Referee: Mr Justin Amey (Bournemouth, Dorset)
Assistants: Mr Joshua Smith (Bourne, Lincolnshire) & Mr Stuart Pawley (Cambridge, Cambridgeshire)
Fourth Official: Mr Graeme Ions (Tonbridge)