MATCH REPORT | BURGESS HILL TOWN 2 DARTFORD 1
The Darts started well on this cold but sunny afternoon in West Sussex, as they forced a couple of early corners and tested goalkeeper Roco Rees with a routine save.
However, the hosts were gifted an opportunity after twenty minutes when the excellent George Vorster released Kieran Rowe, only for Jonny Henly commit the foul on the latter inside the area.
And Vorster made no mistake from the spot-kick, as he punished the goalkeeper to give the hosts the lead.
The opening goal came against the run of play, yet Burgess Hill went on to dominate the majority of the first-half afterwards as they looked to capitalise on their good fortune.
Henly somewhat made amends with a brilliant finger-tip save to stop the hosts from doubling their advantage (24), before Alex Malins put in an excellent block to thwart Denzelle Olopade two minutes later.
The Dartford midfielder did have the last laugh of the first-half though, when he found space in the middle of the park before unleashing a 35-yard pyledriver that flew into the top corner (45+2)!
The hosts’ lead was soon restored just seven minutes into the second-half though, when Rowe’s lovely cross was guided in by the head of Vorster (52).
Ady Pennock moved to freshen things up by bringing on Eddie Dsane and Dan Carter to replace Olly Box and Samir Carruthers respectively (62), before going on to introduce Nelson Eze for Callum Jones (76) and Michael Olarewaju for Jacob Bland (88).
As we return to the action, we find the Hillians reduced to ten men when Ben Pope was shown his second yellow card of the afternoon, followed by a red for a late challenge (63). Yet, the numerical disadvantage only spurred the hosts on to dig deeper and frustrate the visitors.
In fact, for all their possession throughout the remainder of the game, the closest Dartford came to an equaliser was when Dan Smith’s 79th minute effort flew narrowly wide of Roco Rees’ upright and another long-range effort from Denzelle Olopade flew over the goalkeeper’s crossbar deep into stoppage time.
For all their efforts, Ady Pennock’s side just couldn’t break down a resilient Burgess Hill defence, and returned home with a seventh defeat of the season.
BURGESS HILL TOWN: Roco Rees, Hamish Morrison, Reggie Ward, Glen Rea, Josh Spinks, Alex Malins, George Vorster, Kieran Rowe (c), Ben Pope, Harry Lawson, Stefan Vukoje.
SUBSTITUTES: Bobby Price, Kaan Bennett, James Stone, Luke Gambin, Max Fiddes.
DARTFORD: Jonny Henly (c), Sam Odaudu, George Whitefield, Joe Tennent, Samuel Okoye, Denzelle Olopade, Jacob Bland, Samir Carruthers, Olly Box, Callum Jones, Dan Smith.
SUBSTITUTES: Eddie Dsane, Sammie McLeod, Dan Carter, Michael Olarewaju, Nelson Eze.
Chris Palmer