We must not let it slip, say title-chasing managers

THE RYMAN League Division One North - and South - title races took a twist as both Kent giants Dartford and Dover Athletic were defeated by single, late goals yesterday, writes Stephen McCartney.

Dartford lost their 21 match unbeaten run in Ryman League Division One North, courtesy of a wonder-strike from Brentwood Town’s Lee Noble seven minutes from time at Princes Park.

With challengers AFC Sudbury sealing an ugly 1-0 win over ten-man Waltham Forest at Kingsmarsh Stadium, this title race will go right down to the wire.

Mark Morsley’s men were forced to dig deep after James Rowe scored his nineteenth goal of the season after just nine minutes.

The Suffolk side are six points behind the Kent club but they do have two games in hand, although the Darts have a better goal-difference of ten.

Sudbury’s 3-1 defeat at arch-rivals Bury Town in midweek ensured Dartford supporters went into work the next day with smiles on their faces.

But they were brought down to work yesterday against a very good Brentwood Town side, who are just one point behind fifth placed Edgware Town.

Darts boss Tony Burman, speaking to BBC Radio Kent yesterday, wasn’t pleased with his players’ performance.

“I think Brentwood deserved everything that they got today,” he said.

“They were the better team on the day and you have to sometimes hold your hand up to that.

“We’ve been on a fantastic run and the players have done well but individually today and as a team we couldn’t handle the way that Brentwood set up, and from start to finish it just wasn’t to be.

“The lad who scored the goal he scored a 30-yard shot and he done that against us at Brentwood. We’ve hit the bar in the last couple of minutes but the overall performance, we’re disappointed with.

“There was too many players in my opinion under par.”

Throughout this title race, Burman insists everyone connected with Dartford should only be concerned about what they do and ignore the likes of AFC Sudbury.

Despite Sudbury’s midweek defeat, Burman vowed to keep his players’ fully focused on the job in hand - sealing the Ryman League Division One North title.

And he said: “Things happened in midweek and I’ve tried to stress it’s what we do what counts and we mustn’t worry about other clubs.

“Sudbury have closed on us today not because Sudbury have done well and everything else, it’s just because we’ve lost the three points.”

Burman admitted the Brentwood Town players were motivated to cause a shock result in front of a crowd of 1,309 at Princes Park.

He said: “Unfortunately the music that was playing around the ground was “We are the Champions” (by Queen). I mean it’s a bit disappointing that sort of thing’s happened and I hope it gets someone a kick up the backside, like some of our players needed a kick up the backside today.”

Looking ahead to their trip to fifth-from-bottom side Potters Bar Town, Burman added: “The most important game now is next Saturday and we’ve got to get back to winning ways - it’s as simple as that.

“It’s disappointing when lots of people thing it’s all over and it isn’t!

“We show every team around us a lot of respect and we’ve got to try to get back to winning ways and get promoted.”

Ben Andrews’ injury time goal ensured Worthing ended Dover Athletic’s fourteen match unbeaten run in Ryman League Division One South.

Andy Hessenthaler’s side need only five points from their last four games to clinch the title but the former Gillingham star was disappointed with his players’ performance in west Sussex.

“Got what we deserved unfortunately, we had enough of the game in the first half to score probably five or six goals, opportunity wise but without working their keeper enough,” he told BBC Radio Kent.

“Second half, they were better than us.

“A little bit disappointed because there was a few players playing within themselves today, maybe they’re getting sucked into the belief that we’ve won the league and we haven’t.

“I’ve told people that from weeks back that it’s s till a long way to go. We still need five points and it could be the hardest five points we’ve got to get actually.”

Hessenthaler, admitting his side “looked a bit nervous” at Woodside Road are relying on Tooting & Mitcham United slipping up.

The Terrors have hastily re-arranged their home game against Chatham Town - a side that completed the double over the Whites - for Tuesday night (it‘s not even been published on the Ryman League website yet!), before travelling to Walton Casuals on Friday evening - a day before Dover Athletic welcome in-form Burgess Hill Town to Crabble.

“We looked a bit nervous so we’ve got to improve, got to bounce back,” said Hessenthaler.

“Today it just felt to me there were too many players getting sucked into that they’ve already won it and that’s disappointing.

“They’ve got to now bounce back, got to have a decent week (in training) and make sure we get three points at home to Burgess Hill next week.”

But Tooting & Mitcham would love to be in the Whites’ position at the top of the table.

And Hessenthaler said: “We’ve got to stay positive, it’s still well in our hands.

“We can still get 101 points, there’s no reason why we can’t get that.

“I want to win our next four games and I want to win our next four games. I’ve told the players in there we’ve got to go and win our next four games and forget about we just need five points.

“We’ve got to be bright this week leading up to the Burgess Hill game and we don’t have to worry about anyone else as it’s still in our hands.

“It’s up to us and we need to bounce back after today really.”

www.kentishfootball.co.uk shall be covering the following Ryman League games this week:

Tuesday 1^st April - Ryman League Division One South - Tooting & Mitcham United v Chatham Town

Wednesday 2^nd April - Ryman League Cup Final - AFC Sudbury v Ramsgate (at Dartford’s Princes Park Stadium)

Friday 4^th April - Ryman League Division One South - Dulwich Hamlet v Sittingbourne

Saturday 5^th April - Ryman League Division One South - Dover Athletic v Burgess Hill Town

Visit club websites:

www.dartfordfc.co.uk & www.dartfordfootballclub.co.uk

www.doverathletic.com & www.dafctv.co.uk

www.chathamtownfc.net

www.ramsgate-fc.co.uk

www.sittingbournefc.co.uk