Dartford 1-2 Welling United - It’s always nice to get one over your local rivals, says Matt Horne

DARTFORD 1-2 WELLING UNITED
The FA Youth Cup Preliminary Round
Friday 7^th September 2012
Stephen McCartney reports from Princes Park Stadium

WELLING UNITED manager Matt Horne praised his players after they caused an upset by knocking their arch-rivals Dartford out of The FA Youth Cup tonight.

Dartford are now playing Blue Square Bet (Conference) Premier football after they beat Welling United in the Blue Square Bet (Conference) South play-off final, courtesy of Lee Noble’s fourth minute strike.

But Welling United’s youngsters extracted some revenge by winning this Preliminary Round tie in front of a sparse crowd at Princes Park.

Seventeen-year-old attacker, Richard Jimoh, impressed for Welling United throughout as he had pace to burn and he set up both of Welling’s goals, which were well-taken by Reece Grant and Billy Finbow.

Dartford, who hit the crossbar twice with thunderous long range efforts, pulled a goal back courtesy of Femi Akinwande in the final ten minutes, but Welling United held on to book a home tie against Sutton United in the next round.

“They dug in a little bit.  We owed them one really because they beat us in a Cup Final last year and got the equaliser in the 93^rd minute so we needed to get one back on them,” said 48-year-old Horne.

“It’s always nice to get one over your local rivals as well.

“It was a tight game. It was a tight game all the time really and Dartford played well so they had some chances but we dug in there.  We were quite solid defensively so I’m pleased and I thought we were quite clinical on the break.”

Simon Copley, 37, Dartford’s full-time Academy manager, added: “Disappointing in terms that we conceded two goals, especially the first one, direct from the goal kick.  That should be bread and butter stuff for us to deal with that.

“The second goal I accept because we actually came out second half to try to play the right way. The boys listened to what we had to say which was a good thing.

“Welling kind of set-up with a bit more stoppers then try to play and they lived off the long ball and we tried to play and I think we got caught on the sucker punch for the second goal.

“I’m disappointed how we conceded the goals but proud that a bunch of strangers, if you like, so early in the new Academy season have gelled in their first game.”

Carson Dennis, who was otherwise excellent at the heart of the Welling United defence, almost gifted Beima Daramy an early goal, but after rounding the advancing Welling keeper the Dartford striker’s touch was poor and the ball ran out for a goal-kick.

Jimoh was excellent for Welling and with his pace he has the potential to make anyone’s first team and he turned provider for maundering right-back Harry Callum, who flashed an angled right-footed shot across goal and wide of the far post.

Another chance for Welling United came inside the opening nine minutes when Matt Raffie whipped in a cross from the left and Josh Patrick hooked his left-footed volley over the bar.

Dartford midfielders Ebrina Adams and Diego Da Silva both came close to blasting the ball over the roof of the empty terrace behind Tunde Adekojo’s goal.

Welling United striker Grant was spoken to by referee Lee Culpeck after he clashed with Dartford right-back Jeff Allen and Jack Stevens’ resulting free-kick was volleyed wide by Patrick, who had ghosted into the penalty area and cracked his left-footed volley across goal from sixteen-yards.

Daramy flashed his right-footed drive wide of the near post after he cut inside Welling United right-back Cullum, before the home side’s best chance to break the deadlock came in the 34^th minute.

Allan’s ten-yard run enabled him to unleash a powerful right-footed free-kick from 35-yards, which sailed above the wall and crashed agonisingly down off the underside of the Welling crossbar.

Copley, who favours the passing game, said: “What was going through my mind? I just watched it keep going, going and going!

“Ironically enough, I did say at half-time it was a great strike and it rattled the bar. It was too good!  The boy has struck it. Technique wise not much better than that but I actually used that against ourselves and said be happy if that goes in but don’t be proud if that’s how you win a game of football by relying on something like that!

“In training we work on ball retention, turning the back four, all nice and neat stuff.  Yes, it was a cracking shot, but I didn’t want to depend on a cracking shot to win the game!”

But Welling United went up the other end of the pitch and took a deserved lead within three minutes.

Goalkeeper Adekojo launched his clearance up field and Jimoh latched onto the ball and cut inside Henry Goodwin before reaching the by-line and cut the ball back for Grant to stroke a low left-footed drive across keeper Mark Moresfold to find the bottom far corner with a clinical finish.

Horne said: “We’ve got a lot of pace up front with those two (Jimoh and Grant).  If you get in the right areas of the pitch they can hurt people and they weren’t really on top form tonight to be honest!

“This is our first proper game but they’ve got pace to burn.

Copley added: “Their first one, I’m disappointed. It came from a goal-kick didn’t it? The goalkeeper’s got the ball and I heard people advise me saying they play off their goalkeeper, which is fine.  If it works for you, it works for you, but the ball’s got to travel a heck of a long way and if we can’t adjust to that -  I know we were attacking at the time from a set-piece – but even then you set up at the back to deal with that and we didn’t deal with it.

“If we can’t deal with the goalkeeper kicking the ball 70 yards down the pitch straight to a striker when we’re overloaded at the back, it’s not great really.”
Ho

Welling created a couple of more chances before the interval.

Grant threaded the ball through to Finbow, whose low drive was comfortable gathered at the foot of his near post by the Dartford keeper, and then Carson came up from the back to flash his right-footed shot wide after Cullum clipped the ball back into the penalty area after Dartford had initially dealt with a free-kick.

Copley admitted his players froze on the big stage, playing inside an empty stadium, which lacked its usual passionate support and welcoming faces, who were staying in the North East ahead of tomorrow’s game at Gateshead.

He said: “We said to them when they cross the white line you have to cut that out. We said to them cut the stadium out, don’t get overawed by anything else. It’s about what’s on the pitch. Maybe a little bit tonight it was evident that Welling seemed to have been together a lot longer, second year players who know each other and have a bit more cohesion especially with the occasion, safety in numbers mentally wise and our lot we’re a little bit distant from each other, but I accept that because it’s early in the season.

“We’ve had a couple of pre-season friendlies, the league hasn’t started, they’re still learning, plying their trade and whatever else.”

Both managers were asked what they said to their boys during the half-time interval.

Copley said: “I don’t want to be disrespectful towards our opposition.  They’ve got some strong boys in there. They kind of play a long ball game and play off the second ball.  They hit you on the counter attack and it’s effective and it works for them as you saw by the goalkeeper kicking the ball. I don’t think any of their back four dropped off to get the ball from the keeper so I knew they kind of play a longer ball and picking off the seconds.

“I said to our boys, they’re going to get frustrated in there. We’ve got ball players, footballers, who get the ball down on the deck (and asked them to) shorten it up, play it around, frustrate them, try and get the ball and play it forward a bit more direct and play with confidence.

“Technically, man-for-man I think we’re probably more creative, although they’re more experienced. If our boys believed in ourselves more we can unlock players, so the team-talk at half-time was actually ignore the occasion and the mind-set of the game and concentrate on technique and playing forwards on the half turn.”

Horne added: “I just said keep it simple and enjoy the occasion, don’t get bogged down by the occasion, play your football.

“We normally play more football than they did tonight. I just said keep believing that you could do it – and we will!”

Welling United doubled their lead with only 113 seconds on the clock when they hit the hosts on a clinical counter attack.

Once again it was man-of-the-match Jimoh, who picked up the ball inside the Dartford half and played an excellent diagonal pass on the floor to release Finbow, who cut inside Goodwin and curled an excellent left-footed shot across and over Morsefold’s outstretched right arm to find the far corner from 20-yards to score a quality strike.

Horne said: “It was nice for Billy because he works really hard and he took it well.

“Two-nil is always a funny score. One more goal and you’re probably clear, but they got one back which made it a bit tight at the end.”

Copley added: “It was a good finish. The right-back had gone across and I was screaming and shouting at him to get across and he probably got too far across because the guy cut inside.  It was a good finish. He’s put it across the keeper.  To be fair to the boy he’s still got a lot to do and he’s done well. He’s put it around the goalkeeper into the far corner. It’s a good finish. If I was him I’d be happy!”

A knock to visiting keeper Adekojo put his team-mates on the back foot for the remainder of the game as he couldn’t take goal-kicks for the rest of the game.

Dartford increased their urgency and Daramy shrugged off the attentions of Welling midfielder Rhys Edwards before laying the ball to Akinwande, whose right-footed drive from just outside the penalty box brought an excellent defensive block by Dennis, the ball looping over the bar.

“The back four, the two centre backs particularly were immense,” added Horne. “They’re both County players and they threw their bodies on the line.  Carson was tremendous.  Him and Mitchell are a right and left foot combination where they really work well together, very, very, strong defensively.”

Allen had time and space to pump a long ball into the Welling penalty area and Dennis headed the ball out and the ball was met on a powerful right-footed volley by Adams from 30-yards, which crashed against the underside of the crossbar and Welling United survived again.

Copley said: “He’s teed himself up for the volley and he’s just hit it. It’s one of them. That goes in and that’s his FA Cup memory right there!  He wouldn’t have to do anything after that!

“A bit like Jeff’s strike in the first half.  They’ve hit them too sweetly and if they scuffed it a little bit it might dip down a little bit quicker but hey, technique wise you can’t fault that.

“It wasn’t our day.  You’ve hit the bar twice and you concede two goals that we could have done better on, it’s not going to be our day.”

Horne admitted the Dartford skipper had issued his side a warning of what was to come.

He said: “It’s just a warning isn’t it?  How they are allowed to have that space and from the sideline you’re a little bit out of control really.  The first half we were glad to get them in to try to tighten them up in that respect but they’ve hit the bar. Maybe we were a bit lucky on the night. On another day we hit the bar.  Dartford did deserve maybe a draw at the end of it but hey-ho it didn’t come!”

Jimoh stole the ball from Dartford’s central defender Tom Hammond and sprinted towards goal before stroking a low left-footed drive on the angle, just wide of the near post.

But Dartford stepped up another gear during the final fifteen minutes and all that was missing was that Princes Park roar as the boys in white attacked with pace.

Copley said: “What we have got is pace. We’ve got boys who can get the ball down and quickly we tried doing that and they never gave up but it’s like the final third, something kind of went wrong.  We’re playing straight passes until Femi scored the goal to make it 2-1.”

Pacy substitute Clifford Ederfoloro swung in a corner from the right and Da Silva glanced his header agonisingly wide of the far post.

Kieran Scantlebury was then released down the left and he played the ball across the face of goal and the ball came out to Allen, whose right-footed drive from 25-yards was tipped over by the struggling visiting keeper Adekojo.

Dartford pressed for a goal their attacking play deserved and it should have arrived when Allen’s mazy run got him to the by-line and he whipped in an excellent cross towards the near post but somehow Akinwande powered his header narrowly wide of the near post when it seemed easier to score.

But Akinwande made amends as he pulled a goal back shortly afterwards when his turn inside the box left both Dennis and Mitchel O’Biern on the deck and the Dartford winger steered a low right-footed shot into the bottom left-hand corner from 12-yards.

Copley said: “It was a great finish to be fair.  The young lad scored the goal, a bit of self-belief and a bit more confidence and we knocked on the door a couple more times.  Maybe Femi could have scored again!  We got into the right areas, a bit more composure with his finish (and we could have forced extra time).

“We put the ball into the box two or three times with crosses where guys were heading it over when people on the blind side making a run  so they have to talk to each other and get eachother out of the way and attack the ball, but they’re sixteen. I don’t expect them to have that kind of authority as yet although it would be quite nice if they did because they would have capitalised a couple of times if they did!”

Dartford went ever so close following Goodwin’s in-swinging corner, but Da Silva glanced another header agonisingly wide, before Welling United missed an excellent chance to wrap up the game.

Raffie’s diagonal pass put Grant through on goal and Morsefold did well to narrow the angle, advancing towards the edge of his penalty area to comfortably catch the striker’s poor attempt of a chip, which resulted in Grant, who later faced the wrath from his manager for that miss, putting his head in his arms.

Jimoh was on the receiving end of a poor challenge from Nathan Delaney and seconds later Dartford keeper Morsefold, who was some 35-yards from his goal, lost possession to Grant, who played the ball inside to Patrick, who drilled a low left-footed drive from distance but Ronnie Vint protected his goal and saved his keeper’s blushes by clearing the ball off the line beside the right-hand post.

Jimoh was in no rush to take Welling’s only two corners and Dennis could have wrapped up a fine display at the back but he sent his free-header wide of the post.

Dartford couldn’t find a way of forcing extra time during the eleven minutes and 24 seconds of injury time as Welling United march on to face league rivals Sutton United in a couple of weeks’ time.

Horne said: “We’ll take then on. I said to the boys this is a bonus competition, go as far as we can. It’s like the FA Cup really, but for young players.  If we can get through a game at a time, four games, I think you have to get before the big boys come in.

“We’ve got Sutton and we’ll see what we can do against them.”

Dartford: Mark Morsefold, Jeff Allen, Henry Goodwin, Tom Hammond, Ronnie Vint, Bode Anidurge (Clifford Ederfoloro 61), Kieran Scantlebury, Ebrina Adams (Nathan Delaney 76), Beima Daramy (Sam Mankelow 61), Diego Da Silva, Femi Akinwande.
Subs: Abdul Bangura, Jake Piper, Abeo Annorbah-Serpei, Ollie Gibson

Goal: Femi Akinwande 80

Welling United: Tunde Adekojo, Harry Cullum, Jack Stevens, Matt Raffie, Carson Dennis, Mitchel O’Biern, Richard Jimoh, Rhys Edwards (Jack Hobbs 66), Reece Grant (Casey Jerrom 90), Josh Patrick, Billy Finbow 77 (Jack Savill 77).
Subs: Greg Skinner, Dean Gould

Goals: Reece Grant 37, Billy Finbow 47

Booked: Matt Raffie 36, Reece Grant 49

Attendance: 150
Referee:  Mr Lee Culpeck (Gravesend)
Assistants:  Mr Joe Kasper (Gravesend) & Mr George Culpeck (Gravesend)