Kingstonian 0-4 Dartford - I'd love to stay in this for as long as we can, says Tony Burman

Kingstonian, who went into this game lying in ninth-place in the Ryman Premier League table, shot themselves in the foot after striker Andre McCollin had his poor penalty saved by visiting keeper Marcus Bettinelli inside the opening four minutes and midfielder Simon Huckle collected a straight red-card when the fifth-placed Blue Square Bet (Conference) Premier highflyers were leading 1-0.

Dartford scored with their first chance through striker Jacob Erskine after 21 minutes and comfortably sealed their victory when Elliot Bradbrook, Danny Harris and substitute Nathan Collier all scored during the second half.

Burman, who won the Ryman Premier League title on this ground with a 6-2 victory in the top-of-the-table clash back in April 2010, was pleased that Kingstonian couldn’t avenge for that here today.

“It’s a potential banana skin. No disrespect to Kingstonian, they’re two divisions below us and it’s always there to be had,” said Burman.

“We’ve come here and we said we wanted to do a professional performance, a good attitude and try and win the game.

“It’s nice talking in (the dressing room) and we’ve won the game.”

Burman, whose side were favourites for the game and were playing against fellow part-timers added: “To be fair Kingstonian have got to be disappointed to have missed the penalty. If they’re going to cause an upset those penalties have to go in.  We’ve been caught a little bit but I think we’ve come back into the game.”

Burman handed a debut to Semi Ajayi, 19, having signed him on a one-month’s loan from Charlton Athletic after former Dagenham & Redbridge defender Mark Arber injured his jaw last weekend, but the tall central defender didn’t dream that he would slide in to bring Matt Pattinson down inside the penalty area only 177 seconds into his Dartford debut.

Referee Rob Whitton pointed to the spot and up stepped nine-goal striker McCollin, but he fluffed his big chance and stroked a poor left-footed penalty into the gloves of diving Dartford keeper Marcus Bettinelli.

Burman said of his new signing, “Listen, it’s difficult to come into a side. He was training with us on Thursday night.  But he’s a young lad. He’s got a lot to learn. We know that but we’ve given him an opportunity and we thank Charlton for letting us have him. He’ll do alright and he’ll learn and through his experience he’ll be a lot better for it.”

When asked about the penalty incident, Burman said: “I’m not sure whether it was a blatant penalty.   I’m not sure if it was but having said that he’s done ok. He’ll learn from his experience here and hopefully that will help him on his way in his career.

“I’m not sure if it was the greatest of penalties but that’s the way it went.

“Fair play to Kingstonian for keep battling away, especially when they went down to ten men.”

Kingstonian kept plenty of men in behind the ball when the score was 0-0 and Dartford enjoyed plenty of possession on a miserable rain soaked day at Kingsmeadow.

Burman felt Matt Somner should have been sent-off for his lunge on winger Ryan Hayes, who needed treatment, but referee Mr Whitton produced a yellow card for the K’s number eight.

He said: “I’ve got to question the tackle of Haysie, that was a worse tackle and that should’ve been a red!”

But Dartford took the lead from their first attempt on goal after 21 minutes following a fine team move.

Lee Noble and Erskine combined passes but Harris played the ball back to Bradbrook on the edge of the box and the Dartford skipper played a fine pass to send Harris towards the left by-line.

The striker cut the ball across goal towards the near post and Erskine nipped in front of his marker inside the six-yard box to flick his shot across keeper Rob Tolfrey, which rolled into the bottom far corner for his fourth goal of the season.

“Great finish!  Really pleased for him,” said Burman. “That’s what we want him to do more if he can. He’s going into a position where he can do that and he got to get into those positions a lot more than he’s doing.”

Referee Mr Whitton was forced to stop play in the 26^th minute after a lone squirrel caught stewards off their guard and ran on to the pitch to the enjoyment of the fans.

Kingstonian, however, faced an uphill struggle after Huckle collected a red-card for his high challenge on Bradbrook in the 29^th minute.

“Whether it’s a sending off, it’s definitely a yellow card, that’s for sure and it’s close because he’s caught Elliot.  You can debate about the other tackle on Ryan Hayes, that wasn’t pretty either. 

“They’ve had a player sent off. Obviously it’s helped us and we’ve managed to secure the game.”

Burman added: “We set out to move the ball around and get in from side to side to stretch Kingstonian, which we did.

“Listen, it’s difficult sometimes playing against ten-men. I think Kingstonian have worked their socks off. Let’s not taking anything away from them! They’ve done really, really well under the circumstances but when you’re where we are and you’re playing a team a couple of divisions below you, the last thing you want is to be down to ten men and we’ve managed to knock the ball around them.  It was a professional performance.”

Kingstonian striker McCollin went close when he cut in from the right and danced unchallenged into the middle before flashing his left-footed shot across Bettinelli and wide of the far post in the 34^th minute.

Dartford were comfortable, but they didn’t start creating chances until the end of the first half.

Hayes swung in a corner towards the far post and the ball bounced off Noble and Bradbrook’s first time shot was blocked by Aaron Goode at the near post. 

Noble played the resulting corner short to Hayes, whose cross from the left was punched away by Tolfrey, and the ball dropped to Tom Champion on the edge of the box, but his left-footed shot sailed over.

Harris then dispossessed Gary MacDonald on the edge of the Kingstonian box and played the ball to Hayes on his right, who curled a left-footed shot just past the foot of the far post.

Harris and Hayes then combined down the right and Hayes played the ball inside to Noble, who swept the ball inside to Bradbrook, who was given time and space to crack a left-footed drive from 30-yards, which only just cleared the crossbar

When asked what he told his players during the interval, Burman said: “We just reminded them that we had to be professional and needed to get the ball wide and if it’s not on work it wide again. We needed to stretch Kingstonian and I think we did second half.”

Burman hailed his keeper, who is currently on-loan from Premier League Fulham, for thwarting Kingstonian an equaliser in the opening three and a half minutes of the second half.

MacDonald pumped a free-kick into the Dartford penalty area and striker Wade Small wriggled his way in behind the Dartford defence and his right-footed shot on the turn from inside the six-yard box was blocked by the keeper, who dived to his right to make a vital block.

Burman said: “I thought Marcus pulled off a fantastic save in the second half when it was 1-0.”

That passage of play seemed to knock the stuffing out of Kingstonian as Dartford went on to finish the game on the front foot.

The Kent side doubled their lead in the 51^st minute when Hayes swung in a corner from the right with his lethal left-foot and the ball bounced around the penalty area and Bradbrook applied the finish to smash the ball over Tolfrey’s outstretched arms into the roof of the net from inside a crowded goalmouth to score his seventh goal of the season.

Burman praised his captain colossus, by saying, “You’ve got to be in there.  If you’ve’ got the mentality trying to get on to a cross and you’ve got to be the one that scores then it happens. Whether it’s ugly or not someone put the ball across the line, which I want us to do!”

Bradbrook then unleashed a low left-footed drive from distance which Tolfrey did well to get across his goal to turn the shot around his post, before the keeper advanced off his line to claw away Harris’ chip after the striker was played in behind the K’s defence by a clever pass from Erskine.

Harris, though, went from villain to hero, all within 30 seconds.

Noble played an intelligent pass from left to right to pick out Hayes in acres of space and the winger reached the by-line before playing the ball across Tolfrey towards the far post, but a sliding Harris skied the ball over from three-yards out.

But Harris’ despair soon turned to joy, when he curled a low right-footed angled drive from 25-yards, which went around Tolfrey to nestle inside the bottom far corner to give Dartford a 3-0 lead in the 63^rd minute.

Burman said: “That’s Danny! He does, he can miss an early chance and then the next 30 seconds he’s curled a great shot into the bottom corner and that’s Danny!

“He’s worked hard today. I’m pleased with Jacob as well. He’s scored a good goal. All round I’m happy that we’ve moved forward into the next round.”

The two-times former FA Trophy winners were now on the ropes and Dartford could have added to their tally but Rogers’ low left-footed angled drive was pushed around the post by the diving Tolfrey.

Dartford wrapped up their comfortable win with fourteen minutes left when substitute Collier was put through on goal and slotted his right-footed shot underneath the exposed keeper to score his fourth goal for the club.

Burman added: “Nathan has been patient. He’s got great pace when he gets going he is quick. I’m really, really pleased for him that he’s come on and scored a goal for us.

“Four different finishers, that’s what we’ve had this season.  All the time we’ve not had one person scoring them all. 

“I’m just delighted that we’ve gone to a good place, Kingstonian is a fabulous club and they’ve got some good people behind the scenes helping to run the club. I’m just delighted that we’ve got through to the next round.

“We’ve had a great day here a few years’ back and it lives long in the memory.  They’re good people here at Kingstonian and I wish them all the best and hopefully they can make it into that play-off spot.

“A clean sheet is nice. The main thing is that we’ve done a good job, a professional job, enjoyed the afternoon here. It was a decent crowd for Kingstonian as well and we’re glad that we’re in the hat on Monday morning.”

Looking forward to Monday’s Second Round Draw, Burman said: “I’d love to stay in this Cup for as long as I can.  It takes a little bit of pressure off us in the league, a little bit of interest, which is great. You’d like to have a home draw, but it’s in the hands of the gods.”

Dartford travel to Ryman Premier League side Margate in the Kent Senior Cup (Sponsored by Portablefloodlights.com) Second Round on Tuesday night.

Burman said: “We’ve good a good record (in the Kent Senior Cup).  We’ve taken it seriously as we can. We’ve got everybody travelling down there with a few other bodies. We’ll see what happens. The players who haven’t played, I’ve got some quality on the bench. They’re such good players and they’re not even in the eleven.  There’s five or six of them who need to play on Tuesday night.”