Darts target 2,000 as feel good factor spreads

Dartford can look forward to attracting crowds of nearer 2,000 if they can reproduce anything like yesterday’s 4-3 thrilling win over their Kent rivals Ashford Town yesterday, writes Stephen McCartney.

Dartford, second in the table, unbeaten in their last eight, winning their last four games, and Ashford Town, who on recent displays are much better than their position in the bottom two suggests, produced the best game of football played in Kent this season.

Fans, both young and old, male and female, have welcomed the Darts back to the town with open arms.
 
Last week at the stunning £6.5m Princes Park Stadium – a venue for such occasions – Burgess Hill Town, a side that were thrashed 6-1 on the first day of the season – were thumped 7-2 in a game that produced stunning goals and attacking play.
 
Yesterday, they arrived at Princes Park thinking their side, level on points with leaders Dulwich Hamlet, would be able to produce a fraction of such a performance.
 
Well, they came across an Ashford Town side that are desperate for points and in my opinion, with star players like Anthony Allman, Simon Glover, Matt Carruthers, Walid Matata and Steve Sodje, simply too good to go down.
 
You had to feel sorry for Ashford and their manager, John Cumberbatch.
 
Blackheath based assistant Mr James Garrett wanted to steal the limelight on such a delightful occasion, as Cumberbatch explained.
 
“Well, the whole day was a bit strange for me,” he told www.kentishfootball.co.uk.

“First it started the way we felt it could start off.  We had done our planning quite well.  We did our research about their side, we watched them earlier in the season and we also knew they were still playing a similar way.
 
“We knew what we had to do, to cope with their players on the flanks.  We also know we’re quite dangerous on the flanks and it was whether our full backs couple cope with their wide men, which they did.
 
“For the bulk of the game, and going in 2-0 in the first half, wasn’t really against the run of play, it could have been 2-0 to either side.
 
“Then they get a goal to bring them back to 2-1 before the half’s over but with a deflected goal, which was unfortunate for us and from there it all went down hill.”
 
Fans pay money to watch 22 players express themselves – not to watch an assistant converse with a manager doing his job and talking to his players from inside his technical area.
 
With the press box above the visitors dug-out, you could see that Cumberbatch did nothing to over step the mark.
 
“The linesman on this side spent a lot of time telling our lads in the dug-out to sit down, despite the fact their actually in the dug out, they’re not even standing in the technical area,” he said.
 
“But he was telling them to sit down.  Dartford, for the bulk of the game, had three or four people standing in their technical area.
 
“Now I pointed out to him that I would prefer if he had just concentrated on what was happening on the pitch because the time I pointed out to him was when they had a throw in they took it about three yards further from where it should have been.
 
“So I was just concerned he was focusing on the wrong things, and from there it went downhill with him because he then got very stubborn and made a point that we he was continually saying to our lads to sit down and he was deliberately making sure he said very little to the Dartford people standing there and that started getting to me.
 
“As we came off the pitch I spoke to the referee.”  Cumberbatch added: “The linesman then made a comment and the referee asked me “are you and him talking?” meaning myself and the linesman and I said “we’ve got no problems.”
 
“Then apparently the linesman went back into his room with the referee and said to the referee that he couldn’t concentrate during the 45 minutes because I was in his ear and some of the things I was saying was putting him off his game to which the ref decided that I should be sent off.
 
“He came in during my team talk and asked to see me and sent me off, which is very unusual.”
 
Despondent Cumberbatch had mixed feelings after his side lost in the seven-goal epic, in which the only time his side were losing the game was when Ryan Hayes netted an injury time penalty to complete Dartford’s comeback.
 
Speaking about his players, he said: ““Well, it’s a very strange feeling because it’s easy to be proud of them and they can be proud of themselves but we still came away here with absolutely no points.
 
“We knew we are good enough, we know we can play good football.  We knew we are certainly as good or a better side than the side we played against today and to lose to them 4-3 in a game when really their centre half (Lew Watts) have scored the third goal, we felt he should have been booked, could have been sent off in another game.
 
“The penalty they got at the end when their player (Dave Martin) spanked the ball from, what a yard away from our player (Anthony Allman), and it’s hit his arm and the referee then claims even though it was ball to arm he said if the arm hadn’t been there the ball would have gone in the back of the net.
 
“Now, were on the edge of the box, so what he’s saying is he can tell the future and he knows our goalkeeper wouldn’t have saved it.  I find that a ridiculous decision.
 
“To lose in those circumstances, no matter you try not blame officials and I always say it’s really the players on the pitch that dictate the game.
 
“It’s not really the officials but when something like that happens towards the end of the game, it’s very hard to even feel proud about it.
 
“You just think to yourself we just have to pick ourselves up and see what we can do (at home to) Met Police (next Saturday).”
 
His opposite number, Tony Burman, meanwhile, admitted Crawley based referee, Mr Warren Atkin was right to send off his striker Jay May and Ashford’s defender, Tom Adlington for their part in a seventeen-man brawl during the second half.
 
“Well, maybe if I had lost the game, I might be criticising the referee but I tend not to because there seems to be many people on their backs,” he told www.kentishfootball.co.uk.

“Sometimes you have to accept their decisions.  There were decisions I think he got right – the sending off’s, to be fair to him, what Tommy Adlington done was wrong and what Jay May’s done was wrong.
 
“Jay’s pushed Tommy, he’s pushed him so he hasn’t head butted him or anything so the letter of the law says he’s got to go but Tommy’s punched Ryan (Hayes) when he was on the floor.
 
“I saw it and all the bench saw it and Tom’s wrong and so is Jay May.”
 
So enough about talking about the match officials, Burman was smiling after the game after their great escape.
 
“Well, it was nice for us to score in injury time,” he said.  “We had that happen three or four times to us against teams earlier on in the season and we’ve lost games, played well and we’ve lost in injury time.
 
“We played well against Dulwich, we played well against Leatherhead and we didn’t get any points them days so what comes around, comes around.”
 
Burman was full of praise for opponents Ashford Town, who he saw play Cray Wanderers off the park during the first half at Hayes Lane two weeks ago.
 
With Ashford leading 2-0 with two goals within the opening 12 minutes, the game was abandoned during the half-time interval due to a waterlogged pitch.
 
“They’ve come on, they’ve put a little run together,” said the Dartford boss.
 
“I expect the atmosphere is nice at the club.  They’ve been down there and that’s the trouble.
 
“The trouble is there not at the right end of the table.  You get these runs, go on three or four and all of a sudden games like this, if you’re at the right end of the table you sometimes find luck goes for us admittedly.
 
“Having said that, second half we were the ones that wanted to win the game.”
 
Left-sided winger, Dave Martin, 21, who Burman plucked from Kent League outfit Slade Green, made his farewell to the Darts faithful yesterday.
 
Martin won Darts last gasp penalty when his cross struck Anthony Allman’s outstretched arm and received a well deserved ovation at the final whistle.
 
Dartford have called a press conference at Princes Park on Tuesday morning.
 
Burman said: “The latest is, the balls in Crystal Palace’s or Millwall’s court.  They’ve got until the 31^st of this month to make him a professional footballer.  This could be his last game, I don’t know.
 
“Both know the valuation we’ve put on David, yes, and the valuations not frightened them off so I think there is interest.”
 
Burman, himself a former professional at Charlton Athletic, believes the quick winger can go a long way.
 
He said: “If someone gives you a chance to become a professional footballer, you’ve got to take it with both hands.
 
“It’s purely up to David.  He’s got what the League club’s want and that’s pace and he’s got to improve on everything else, if we’re honest and training five days a week will improve him. I think he’s got the dedication.
 
“Being in Millwall’s first team or Crystal Palace’s first team with the shirt on for just one game is not good enough.  He’s got to push on and wanna be the best.”
 
Darts can leapfrog Dulwich Hamlet into top spot if they win or draw at Molesey on Tuesday night.
 
“We have to go to these places and try and get results and that’s what we’ll endeavour to do,” he said.
 
“I want to finish as high above fifth place as we can.  If that means we’re first at the end of the season then great.
 
“If were not top that’s not too bad.  However it happens we have got to pick up points.
 
“If we had picked up one point today I would have been pleased.  At half-time I asked all the players to come off the field and give their all and I think they did.”
 
Dartford’s next opponents at Princes Park are Cray Wanderers on Saturday, 3^rd February.
 
If crowds to reach the 2,000 mark, co-chairman Mr Dave Skinner will need to make games at Princes Park all-ticket – a nice headache to have.
 
“We all want people to enjoy their visit to Princes Park, home, away or neutral fans, and to leave us saying what a great day they had,” he wrote in his programme notes.
 
“We have a wonderful stadium, a team playing great football, lots of happy smiling faces on the terraces and lots of new fans finding out what we Darts fans have always known – that ours is a great club.

”Let’s make sure that the feel good factor spreads and that we will become a greater club in the future and that we all get what we deserve – for the faith and loyalty we have shown over the years to our club.”
 
A total of 40 goals have been scored during the eight games at Princes Park already.
 
A total of 12,794 fans have been thoroughly entertained at the stunning stadium – an average of 1,599.
 
Surely the club can break the 2,000 mark?
 
Molesey  v  Dartford
Ryman League Division One South
Tuesday 23^rd January 2007
Kick Off 7:45pm
At The Herds Renault Stadium, 412 Walton Road, East Molesey, Surrey KT8 2JG