After a 4-1 humbling away at Bridon Ropes last weekend The Darts were determined to get some pride back against their bogey team Cray Wanderers in the quarter–final of the KYL Cup. Having been beaten up in the opening fifteen minutes the previous week Dartford set out in a much more determined, focused and resilient mood.
Dartford had the better of the first half and limited Cray to two chances from direct balls over the defence. Although The Darts were caught a little square they managed to regroup and push the attacker wide for in the first instance and in the second forced tha attacker to shoot across goal.
Dartford went close with Ben Thompson pulling his shot wide from outside the box, then a well worked short free kick then tested the Cray no.1 at the near post, Kaka shooting narrowly over and the Cray goalkeeper doing well on a few occasions thwarting crosses from both sides and also saving at the near post from Kem Cetinay. The Darts thought they had taken the lead after half an hour when Ben Thompson crossed for Darien Neavin to control and finish. However, the linesman had other ideas and flagged for offside?
0-0 at the break and all to play for in the second half of this evenly contested quarter-final……
Unfortunately the self destruct button was not too far away as a needless free kick wide on the left was conceded. Marking was lax and the ball travelled across the entire six yard box without anyone in a white shirt reacting. A tame header back across goal crawled into the far corner for Cray to take the lead.
The game continued to huff and puff with DFC trying to get themselves back into the game, but without any conviction. Ten minutes later and slack marking from another cross allowed the Cray forward to head against the post. Again, Dartford did not react quick enough to the second ball and the same player finished off the rebound to make the score 2-0.
This did inject some impetus into the team and Edwin Armah headed straight at the goal keeper from a corner when well placed, but then in the next attack was brought down just outside the box. Ben Thompson curled the resultant free kick into the top corner for what the supporters thought could be the springboard for the equalizer. Two minutes later and the crowd thought this had arrived after Kem Cetinay surged down the right and his pin point cross was met by the impressive Edwin Armah to somehow head over from 5 yards out with only the goal keeper to beat. It is said that you are always most vulnerable just after scoring and this was exactly what happened. From Edwins near miss Cray attacked down the right with Dartford giving away another unnecessary free kick. As the long cross sailed over the entire back line the player at the far post was there to head goal wards and although Oli Gibson did well to save, Cray were again quickest to react.
No more chances were created by either side and congratulations must go to Cray for grinding out another win against The Darts in this tense affair. Despite losing the match, the team came out with many positives from their performance and knowledge of areas that they really need to improve upon. They will play a lot worse over the season and win the game so onwards and upwards…….
Team - Oli Gibson, Michael Carey (Sam Ashby), Henry Goodwin, Ronnie Vint, Laurie Watts, Kem Cetinay, Ben Thompson, Tom Fawcitt (Zach Matthews), Edwin Armah, Darien Neavin, Kaka.
Subs – Sam Ashby, Zach Matthews, Jack Sharkey, Rohan Khattra
Goal scorer - Ben Thompson.
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Topic: Under 16 KYL - DFC 1-3 Cray Wanderers (Q-F Kent Cup) (Read 142 times)