Dartford 2-1 Eastbourne Borough - There seems to be a negative feeling around the place - Burman

Having seen his side claim only their second win during the current five game unbeaten run, Dartford manager Tony Burman reflected on the game, saying, “It was difficult first half because Eastbourne have played a lot of people behind the ball.  We’ve had to keep our concentration for a long time, but we’ve got to make something happen and in the first half I was disappointed because we couldn’t make it happen.”

With Eastbourne setting out to frustrate Dartford and looking to create a chance on the counter attack, the only early Dartford threat came from the delivery of Ryan Hayes’ corners. 

Using a blustery wind that was blowing straight down the Princes Park pitch, Hayes’ tested visiting keeper Masters on a couple of occasions, but apart from an odd misjudgement caused by the wind, the keeper handled the ball well.

It was the visitors who created the clearest chances of the half.  First through returning forward Rook, who got on the end of a flick from Ross Treleaven’s long throw.  Rook managed to get ahead of Tom Bonner, but could only poke his effort off the top of the crossbar.

Within minutes, Treleaven found himself free at the back post from a Steve Brinkhurst cross, but could only direct his header wide of Louis Wells’ left hand post, then Rook guided a header wide of the right hand post.

In response, Paul Goodacre managed to latch onto a Hayes corner, but saw his goalbound header hit Danny Baker on the back of the head, before Danny Harris’ free header from an Adam Green cross was claimed by Masters at the second attempt.

Eastbourne’s game plan almost came to fruition in first half stoppage time, as Treleaven picked up a through ball from Ethan Strevett, held off a Green challenge, then attempted an audacious dink over Wells from 20 yards, but cleared the bar as well.

Burman added: “The onus is on us when you’re at home, and especially when there are that many behind the ball.  They tried to hit us on the break and a couple of times something nearly happened.  But we’ve got to make things happen. 

“Ryan’s put three balls in from corners and I can’t believe we’re not in there challenging.”

Burman added:  “At half time, we just said keep cool and something will happen, whether it’s a deflected shot, or in off someone’s backside, and be fair to them, they responded.  

“There seems to be certain people with a negative feeling around the place.  Alright, we’re not winning as many as we’d like, but we’ve got to try to lift people up and after we scored, the movement was better, the passing sharper and there was a bit of belief and confidence.”

Burman’s half-time team talk looked to have inspired his team and a majority of the crowd thought Harris had broken the deadlock within two minutes of the restart. 

Lee Burns worked the ball well on the right side of the area, squared a pass in to Harris, whose first time shot crashed into the side netting – although from the press box, it looked in.

The deadlock was finally broken in the 57th minute – and what a strike it was!  Tom Champion picked up the ball in the centre circle, charged forward unchallenged, and rifled a 30-yard drive that swerved into the top right corner of Masters’ goal, with the keeper rooted to the spot.

Gary Hart had a half chance to equalise from Eastbourne’s next corner, but could only stab a dropping ball wide.

Dartford looked to have sealed the game in the 66th minute as Harris steered Green’s cross-shot into the bottom left corner, but no-one could believe Mr Fitch’s decision 5 minutes later, least of all Burman who showed his disbelief on the touchline. 

He said: “With the second goal, you can see the confidence come back, but then I don’t know what the referee has done for the penalty.  We’ve worked hard on defensive play, want to keep clean sheets and it looks like he’s had a howler.  From my view, it was never a penalty.  He’s got it so, so wrong.  It’s looked like he’s tripped his own player and I can’t believe the linesman cannot help the referee out in that situation; he must have seen it.”

A deep Treleaven corner towards the back post seemed to have been cleared, as Ollie Rowe and Gary Elphick both crashed to the ground and it appeared that one or both had collided with, then fallen on top of Jon Wallis.

Having been awarded the chance to get his side back into the game, Eastbourne Borough’s top scorer Rook calmly sent Wells the wrong way from the spot.

Borough manager Garry Wilson made a couple of changes to his side, but the game was effectively sealed 12 minutes from time. 

Harris deflected Elphick’s clearance along the edge of the Eastbourne penalty area, and as Masters slid out to gather the ball, his momentum carried him out of the area and, with Burns hovering, Mr Fitch was left with no option but to dismiss the keeper. 

With no replacement on the bench, midfielder Matt Smart took over in goal, but Burman felt some sympathy for the former Welling stopper, stating “the keeper’s got the ball, but he’s slid out of the area.  He’s not done anything intentionally.  The referee’s said he’s denied a clear goal scoring opportunity, but I think it was really harsh.”

Despite the stand-in goalkeeper for the last 12 minutes, Dartford couldn’t really test him, as both Hayes and Wallis saw efforts sail over the bar.

Dartford: Louis Wells, Matt Jones, Adam Green, Tom Bonner, Paul Goodacre, Tom Champion, Ryan Hayes, Jon Wallis, Danny Harris, Lee Burns, James Rogers.
Subs: Lee Noble, Richard Graham, Jacob Erskine, Tony Garrod, Deren Ibrahim

Goals: Tom Champion 57, Danny Harris 66

Eastbourne Borough: Clark Masters, Darren Baker, Sam Cole, Matt Smart, Ollie Rowe, Gary Elphick (Ben Austin 80), Steve Brinkhurst (Bailo Camara 74), Ethan Strevett (Matt Crabb 68), Carl Rook, Gary Hart, Ross Treleaven.
Subs:  Eddie Hutchinson, Ben Watson

Goal: Carl Rook (pen) 71

Sent Off: Clark Masters 78

Attendance: 611
Referee: Mr Carl Fitch (Ipswich, Suffolk)
Assistants: Mr Tim Burman (Greenhithe) and Mr Nick Dunn (Deal)