Woking 1-0 Dartford - It's a bitter pill to swallow, admits Dartford boss Tony Burman

WOKING  1-0  DARTFORD
Blue Square Bet Premier
Tuesday 14^th August 2012
Stephen McCartney reports from Kingfield Stadium

DARTFORD manager Tony Burman says tonight’s controversial gut-wrenching defeat to Woking was a bitter pill to swallow.

The Darts, who finished runners-up to Woking last season, losing out on the Blue Square Bet (Conference) South title by nine points, were reduced to ten-men after 34 minutes when midfielder Lee Noble picked up two yellow cards within three minutes.

Up until then, the Kent side, who brought 160 supporters across to Surrey for their second game of the season, were the better side, but Burman was proud of his side’s resilient display.

But Woking snatched their first victory of the season when substitute Giuseppe Sole converted a hotly-disputed penalty with only nine minutes remaining after former Welling United striker, Loick Pires, was sent sprawling to the ground following a challenge from Mark Arber, which Burman claimed was outside of the penalty box.

“I think it’s very cruel, but that’s football, you have to get on with it,” said Burman, 54, who has guided Dartford to three promotions in the past six years to reach this level.

“The guys’ have worked very, very hard, especially when they’ve obviously gone down to ten men and they (Woking) haven’t really troubled us in all honesty.  It’s cruel, but it’s football.  It’s how it goes.”

Burman added: “They’ve got a penalty, whether it was a penalty, or whether it was inside the box, I don’t know, but the lineman’s there, he’s given the penalty. He must have thought it was a penalty.

“It’s a bitter pill to swallow really when the lads’ have done so well.”

Woking began their Blue Square Bet (Conference) Premier campaign with a 3-1 defeat away to Wrexham, and Tamworth punished Dartford’s defensive mistakes with a 3-2 win at Princes Park on what was the Darts’ return to the top-flight of non-league football after an absence of 26 years.

Dartford created the first chance of the game inside the opening ten minutes when James Rogers and Adam Green combined down the left flank and Green’s cross was sliced over his own crossbar by Woking central defender Joe McNerney.

Noble swung in the resulting corner from the left, which found skipper Elliot Bradbrook at the far post and the influential midfielder planted his header over.

Dartford’s best chance of the game came five minutes later when Noble played an inch-perfect through ball with his right-foot which released Jacob Erskine through on goal and Woking keeper Aaron Howe made a low save to his left to prevent the striker scoring with an angled right-footed drive from 15-yards, which was destined to find the bottom near corner.

Woking’s first chance arrived in the 21^st minute when strikers Pires and Bradley Bubb combined down the left and the ball was played inside to Lee Sawyers, who sliced his right-footed drive wide from 25-yards.

Dartford keeper, Louis Wells, made a string of fine saves and he was called into action when he dived swiftly to his left and used a strong left hand to turn Bubb’s angled left-footed low drive onto the foot of his near post and out for a corner after the Woking striker latched onto Pires’ flick on after Howe’s clearance upfield.

Noble received his first yellow card from referee Mr Dean Treleaven after he brought down winger Kevin Betsy by the left by-line and was pulled away from a potential flashpoint by his skipper Bradbrook.

However, Burman wasn’t pleased with the referee after he pulled out a second yellow – and then a red – to Noble after he clipped Woking’s Mike Cestor on the touchline after the left-back attempted to spring free.

Burman said: “I think Lee’s lost it.  He’s got booked and then about 30-45 seconds later he’s been fouled twice. The referee’s standing there, he’s been fouled twice and the referee hasn’t given a foul and then Lee hasn’t made a bad tackle, it’s a tackle, but it’s not a bad tackle.

“Having said that he’s got to keep his composure in those situations, but the referee got it wrong.”

Burman added: “Tonight was always going to be an uphill battle when we went down to ten-men but we’ve held our own.”

Burman, however, praised Erskine’s contribution, after playing as the lone striker until he was replaced by Harry Crawford with just over 20 minutes left to play.

He said: “Jacob’s done well.  He’s worked hard on his own up there. He’s done well tonight. We’ve got a squad and we have to try to use them.  We had to make some changes because of tired legs.  Jacob’s done alright that’s for sure.”

Woking supporters increased their support for their side and they responded by putting the Darts on the back foot for the remainder of the half.

Betsey cut the ball back to skipper Mark Ricketts’, who played the ball inside to Cestor, who in turn found Bubb and Woking’s goalscorer at Wrexham had time and space but all he could do was flash a right-footed shot wide from 30-yards.

Woking remained patient for their next raid when right-back Adam Newton sprayed the ball across to Betsey on the left and he cut the ball back to Sawyers, whose right-footed drive from 25-yards bounced into Wells’ gloves.

Wells made a couple of saves inside injury time. Woking’s man-of-the-match Sawyers picked the ball up inside his own half and went on a 50-yard run with the ball before he stroked a right-footed drive which Wells saved at the second attempt, low to his right, gathering the loose ball before Williams could pounce.

Williams was the next to be denied in the last action of the first half, cutting in and stroking a right-footed shot which was parried by the visiting keeper, once again diving low to his right.

Burman was pleased with his side’s first half performance.

He said: “The first half with eleven men we had some decent chances and got behind them and we should’ve punished them and we never!”

Woking took nearly nine minutes to create their first second half chance.

A floated cross from the right channel from Williams found Betsey at the far post and his knock down resulted in Pires’ hooked shot being blocked and the ball came out to Cestor, who cracked a left-footed shot which sailed over Wells’ crossbar.

Bubb then drove a right-footed shot over from 25-yards after the Dartford defence blocked out Betsey’s route towards goal following Newton’s cross from the right.

Wells produced his best save of the night in the 57^th minute.

Sawyer’s corner from the right was headed out of the penalty area and Newton cracked a rasping drive with his right-foot from 30-yards, which was destined to sail into the top left-hand corner, but the former Staines Town keeper flung himself to his right to palm the ball to safety.

Wells picked up a groin strain after producing a fantastic save – and had trouble taking goal-kicks for the rest of the game, leaving Arber to take them for him.

Burman was pleased that his defence were holding firm and that Woking’s attackers didn’t get in behind them.

He said: “That’s what we said - we wanted to keep their attempts outside the box and we did that.”

Brave Dartford ventured forward after the hour mark when Rogers latched onto Green’s downward throw down the left channel and he cut the ball back to Danny Harris, who blasted his right-footed shot over from an acute angle.

Green and Rogers combined again down the left and Rogers got in behind the Woking right-back to whip in the ball to find Bradbrook lurking at the far post, but the skipper sent a looping header onto the roof of the net from eight-yards.

The longer the game went on, it appeared that resilient Dartford had held on to a much-deserved point.

Woking boss Garry Hill brought on a couple of fresh legs and former Ebbsfleet United striker Sole almost scored when his shot on the turn deflected over after Pires laid the ball into his path.

Sole took the resulting corner himself from the left and McNerney came up to power his shot over at the far post.

But Dartford suffered a gut-wrenching defeat when Sole attacked Dartford and went to ground after Arber’s challenge – and despite the challenge appearing to be made outside of the penalty area, referee Mr Treleaven pointed to the spot and confirmed it was a penalty after consulting his assistant, Anthony Serrano.

This controversial decision clearly angered the sky-blue shirted Dartford players and Rogers picked up a yellow card for his protests aimed at the officials.

And just as Sole was waiting to take the resulting penalty, there was a coming together of players on the other side, which needed calming down and Wells was also booked for picking the ball up from the spot in a bid to put off Sole.

But Sole kept composed and sent Wells the wrong way with his right-footed penalty, stroking the ball into the left hand corner to win it for Woking with nine minutes left.

All hell broke loose again when Sole said something to upset the Dartford keeper and there was another ugly scene as both sets of players came together again – and a fan who scaled the perimeter fence coming from the direction of the massive Leslie Gosden Stand had to be escorted off the pitch by stewards.

Dartford’s man-of-the-match Wells made a save to deny Woking substitute Gavin McCallum after Sawyers played a free-kick back to McNerney, and Sawyers pumped the ball into the Dartford box.

Dartford had claims for a penalty turned down after Lee Burns, who was pushed forward from right-back, was pulled back inside the Woking penalty area and substitute  Crawford, who scored on his debut at the weekend, was denied an equaliser at the death when Woking keeper Howe spread himself to make a fine block as the former Southend United striker hooked a shot towards goal from an acute angle.

Woking finished the game with ten-men themselves after Sole was forced off with a knee injury after Hill had already used his three substitutes, but after eight minutes and 35 seconds of injury-time Woking had done enough to scrape their first victory of the season and to climb off the foot of the table leaving Dartford in the bottom four.

Burman has taken the positives out of his side’s opening two games and although they have lost them both, the Dartford boss has every reason to remain upbeat.

“I think we more than matched them,” he said.  “I think we played very well tonight, especially with eleven men on the field.

“I thought we were decent. I didn’t think they were causing us any problems and I think we were causing them more problems than they were causing us.

“Woking are a good team but we’ve come here and every time we come here we play very, very well and haven’t got anything for it.  That’s football! It’s the way it goes, but I can’t fault the effort. I can’t fault the way that the boys have played.  I’m proud of them tonight in respect of what they’ve done.

“I’m so disappointed because I just feel that we deserve something from the game.  It is difficult at the moment that we’ve lost the game but that’s football. It happens. We’ve been put in the situation where we’ve gone down to ten-men but that’s down to us and very much down to the referee.”

The Dartford faithful left Kingfield Stadium appreciating the efforts from their heroes and Burman said he has learnt from his side’s opening two games of the season.

He said: “Sometimes you learn a little bit more when you have defeats. If we win two games everything thinks everything’s ok.  It’s not that all the time. You do learn things when you’ve lost but having said that what I’ve learnt tonight is that I’ve still got a good team spirit, we’ve still got good players and they want to improve and they will improve in this league, especially with performances that we’ve had.”

Woking: Aaron Howe, Adam Newton, Mike Cestor, Mark Ricketts (Dean Sinclair 90), Joe McNerney, Brett Johnson, Loick Pires, Lee Sawyers, Bradley Bubb (Gavin McCallum 67), Brett Williams (Giuseppe Sole 67), Kevin Betsey.
Subs: Jack Parkinson, Sam Beasant

Goal:  Giuseppe Sole 81 (pen)

Booked: Bradley Bubb 44, Mike Cestor 70

Dartford: Louis Wells, Lee Burns, Adam Green, Tom Champion, Mark Arber, Tom Bonner, Lee Noble, James Rogers (Richard Rose 87), Jacob Erskine (Harry Crawford 68), Elliot Bradbrook, Danny Harris (Nathan Collier 78).
Subs: Jon Wallis, Ryan Hayes

Booked: Lee Noble 31, James Rogers 79, Louis Wells 81, Tom Champion 90

Sent Off: Lee Noble 34

Attendance: 1,846 (160 Dartford supporters)
Referee: Mr Dean Treleaven (Chichester, West Sussex)
Assistants: Mr Anthony Serrano (Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire) & Mr David Spain (Westfield, East Sussex)
Fourth Official: Mr Benjamin Knight (Waterlooville, Hampshire)