"Gutted" Burman see's Darts unbeaten start go...

Saturday 28th November 2009

DARTFORD v AFC HORNCHURCH

Ryman Premier League

Saturday 28th November 2009

Mike Green reports from Princes Park Stadium

Dartford's proud unbeaten League record has gone after AFC Hornchurch staged what can only be described as the text book "smash and grab" raid to win a game in which the Essex side failed to have a shot worthy of the name!

The games only goal came at the end of a disappointing opening half when AFC's right back Billy Coyne fired a cross into the Dartford penalty area that seemed to gather a lot of pace after skidding through the box and as a result, skidded off of the surface and into the corner of Andrew Young's net.

A disappointed Darts boss Tony Burman talking to kentishfootball.co.uk after the game admitted that "(it) proves we're not infallible - we've lost one now and we have to prove that we can take it on the chin and except it." On the visitors tactics, Burman was his usual honest self when he explained, "Hornchurch are very professional in what they do, they waste time and try to annoy you - its their way of playing but to be fair they defended well (with eleven behind the ball particularly in the second half) but I cant say that their keeper was man of the match and that’s annoying - we've created half chances from a hell of a lot of possession but the keeper hasn’t had to make many saves, which is a little bit disappointing. It’s proving difficult for us particularly at home when people are playing two banks of four and sometime five to break people down - I cant fault the work rate but the quality particularly in the final third was missing today. Hornchurch came with the intention of trying to nick the game, and they’ve done it from a cross and if we're honest its a cross - we had to win the battle today; they're a difficult team to play against - its the way they play - how can I criticise them when they've come here and got the three points?"

Apart from Coyne's cross, and two glaring misses on the break from Michael Spencer and Jonathan Hunt, it was one way traffic from start to finish with the Hornchurch central defensive pairing of Mark Goodfellow and skipper Elliott Styles undoubtedly the two most overworked players on the pitch!

After a stuttering first half which saw lee Burns head a Ryan Hayes free kick wide; Lee Noble shooting wide after a great exchange of passes with Danny Harris and a flying Styles almost heading the Own Goal of the Season, you somehow feared that it wasn’t going to be Dartford’s day. And when the visitors went in a goal up, those feelings had turned into alarm bells, especially as the second half wore on things were not really changing. Noble fired in a shot that hit Styles and looped inches wide of the left post, before jay may fired inches wide of the right post after Burns and Hayes combined.

The introduction of Rob Haworth and James White on 63 minutes appeared to give the home side more balance - a point which Burman didn’t necessarily agree with. He said, "We may have possibly looked unbalanced sometime, but I could argue that that was because we put a lot of onus Ryan and he didn’t have one of his best games today - other people have got to do things that have a little bit of quality in their play and I feel that its got to be shared around - we just didn’t make their keeper make a lot of saves like other keepers who have come here this season.. We made the changes to see if something different work and that’s the only reason for the change - we put on James and Rob to see if we could get a bit more luck than the others were having. We've camped in their half second half, but the quality in respect of getting shots on target didn’t happen today."

And almost immediately, the Darts were denied a penalty when the ball struck Styles somewhere on his left arm from Haworth’s shot - yet despite loud cries for a spot kick, referee Harris (who didn’t have his most consistent afternoon of the season) waved the protests away. The change meant that the successful early season partnership of Burns and Haworth were reunited up front, and as the half chances kept coming it was no surprise that the Darts two top scorers were at the heart of most things... Haworth saw a shot well parried by Hornchurch keeper Darren Behcet (who incidentally took the art of "time wasting" to the very extreme), before the ball was hacked clear. The Darts Sub then muscled his way free to get in headers from a Hayes corner and a long free kick from Billy Burgess, who himself was very fortunate still to be on the pitch at the end as he was cautioned in stoppage time ten minutes after an ugly challenge left Spencer in a heap. Then in stoppage time, it was Burns' turn as he could only turn a driven free kick (from Adam Flanagan) straight into the welcoming arms of Behcet.

From the stands it is all too easy to criticise when the opposition’s approach to the beautiful game is so negative, but given the fact that the darts had prior to kick off taken 41 of a possible 45 points, you can to a degree understand the visitors tactics, as its important to remember that even at this level you're judged on results! Yet even the neutrals in the 1,224 crowd (Dartford's 6th 1,000 plus League gate in nine games this season) would have gone home feeling that they too had been robbed - robbed of a Saturday afternoon's entertainment - but as Burman himself said, "how can we criticise when Hornchurch go home with the points?

DARTFORD - Andrew Young, Billy Burgess, Adam Gross, Adam Flanagan, Jamie Coyle, Danny Dafter (Danny Crouch 83), Ryan Hayes, Danny Harris (James White 63), Jay May (Rob Haworth 63), Lee Burns, Lee Noble

Subs not used - John Beales, Tony Kessell

Booked - Adam Gross 44, Lee Noble 67, James White 70, Billy Burgess 90

HORNCHURCH - Darren Behcet, Billy Coyne, Andy Tomlinson, Mark Goodfellow, Elliott Styles, Jamie Dormer, Jonathan Hunt (Ronnie Fletcher 86), Mark Janney, Duane Jackman (Kris Lee 59), Wayne Gray (Paul Shave 74), Michael Spencer

Subs not used - John Green, Mitchell Stuart Lewis

Booked - Jamie Dormer 3, Andy Tomlinson 86

Goal - Billy Coyne 43

Officials - Mr Paul Harris (Maidstone)

Assistants - Mr Ian Fissenden (Gillingham) and Mr Graeme Ions (Maidstone)

Attendance 1,224