We're going up to Oxford to finish off the job, vows Osborne

LONG-SERVING defender Tommy Osborne is confident his Dartford team-mates will finish off the job when they travel to Oxford City on Tuesday night, writes Stephen McCartney.

The Darts threw away a 3-1 lead, Cody McDonald scoring a 46 minute hat-trick for the Darts, in atrocious conditions at Princes Park yesterday and were criticised by manager Tony Burman for conceding two headed goals from set-pieces, which enabled Oxford to get a second bite of the cherry in this FA Carlsberg Trophy Second Qualifying Round tie.

Striker McDonald has now scored five goals in his first three games for the Kent club, following his switch from Ryman One North outfit Maldon Town.

A crowd of 749 braved the wet and windy conditions, which made watching the game, especially from the drenched press area, virtually impossible.

And Osborne, speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk yesterday, admitted it was very tough going, out on the soaked Princes Park pitch.

“Very tough, it goes without saying it was very tough,” he said. “The wind was swirling, it rained more than less throughout the whole of the ninety minutes and certain areas of the pitch the ball would stop rolling literally.

“The conditions were very tough, but it’s the same for both sides and at 3-1 up you’ve got to be disappointed that we haven’t won the game.”

Dartford fought back from 3-0 down at the break to force a 3-3 draw against AFC Hornchurch in the Ryman Premier League in midweek and Osborne, who played left-back yesterday, admits holes have to be plugged if their to book their place in the last qualifying round.

“It’s disappointing that we’ve scored three goals in our last two home games and haven’t win them so I think Tony (Burman) is within his rights to say we’ve got to look at the goals and maybe look at our general play and stop those goals,” said Osborne.

“In saying that, we went away to Tooting and they didn’t give them a sniff so I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom.

“It’s just we’ve got to get these errors out of our game so when we do score two, three goals, we do go on and win the game.

“We’ve got (a clean sheet) at Tooting and really that should have been a platform for us to kick on so that’s where we’re disappointing because we know we can do it.

“It’s just our last two home games we’ve probably been laxed and sloppy in certain areas and been punished.”

Dartford will be departing Princes Park at 4pm on Tuesday night to make the 96 mile trip to Court Place Farm Stadium, but rest assured, Burman’s troops will finish off the job.

“To be honest with you, off late, our away form has been good,” said Osborne.

“We’ve looked solid, we’ve won some good away games this year so I don’t think we go there anything other than confident that we can go there and win the game.

“Obviously we were 3-2 up with a minute left so a little bit disappointing in that respect but what’s happened has happened and we must go there thinking we can win the game and we do think we can win the game.”

Osborne insists Dartford will go into Tuesday night’s replay in high spirits, despite yesterday’s disappointment.

“It was disappointment, I think that goes without saying,” he admitted. “Three-one up and you don’t win the game and them scoring so late on we were disappointed with ourselves.

“We’ve got a couple of days and we’ve got to get our heads up because we can’t feel sorry for ourselves because we’ve got a replay on Tuesday night to win.”

After Jon Gardner levelled for Oxford with a 20^th minute curler, headed goals from Andy Gunn and Steve Jackman, both from set-pieces, proved to be Dartford’s downfall.

Jackman glanced his header into the bottom right-hand corner, following Steve Davis’ 89^th minute corner, after Darts’ goalkeeper, Andrew Young, tipped over Gardner’s 25-yard effort.

“On another day if we defend better than we did, that’s not just the back four, that’s the team, we win the game,” admitted Osborne.

“We can’t dwell on it, we’ve got to crack on and go there Tuesday night with a real positive frame of mind.”

Oxford City may feel the hard work has been done and should fancy their chances on home soil.

But Osborne admits Dartford have nothing to fear, especially as they’ll have their own fan-base travelling to Oxfordshire in big numbers.

“They probably think that and if they do think that way it might even do us a favour,” he said.

“But away from home I feel we can win games. We’ve done it this season. We’re going there with a most confident mood.

“We don’t think this tie is over by a long way!”

Visit Dartford’s websites:  www.dartfordfc.co.uk & www.dartfordfootballclub.co.uk

Oxford City v Dartford
FA Carlsberg Trophy Second Qualifying Round Replay
Tuesday 4^th November 2008
Kick Off 7:45pm
At Court Place Farm, Marsh Lane, Marston, Oxford OX3 0NQ