MATCH REPORT | Dartford 3 Brentwood Town 2
As 1,082 supporters got themselves comfortable on this mild Saturday afternoon, little did they know that they’d be in for a treat of witnessing five fantastic goals in this top-five of the table clash.
The Darts took the lead within two minutes of the start, when Samuel Okoye’s strike left Blues’ goalkeeper Aiden Prall with no chance after terrific combination play involving Sam Odaudu, Olly Box, and Dan Smith.
The visitors responded by hitting the frame of Jonny Henly’s goal (5), before both Samir Carruthers and Jacob Bland came close for the hosts at the other end.
Olly Box struck a sweet strike to double Dartford’s lead with his 14th goal of the season, after Prall had initially denied Callum Jones (26), as Dartford threatened to run riot.
However, Brentwood Town were always a threat with their fast attacking play, with the excellent Wyan Reid and Kymani Thomas a constant thorn in Dartford’s left side.
Jonny Henly pulled off an excellent save from close-range inside a crowded box, before Kymani Thomas pulled a goal back for the visitors with a delicious curling strike (41).
Brentwood began the restart on the front-foot in a bid to find the equaliser, as they pegged their hosts back deep in their own half of the pitch.
Henly was forced into action early to thwart the visitors, before a corner from the hosts was intercepted by substitute Scott Kashket. He ran the length of the field, before finding Daniel Ogunleye with a lovely cross which the latter buried to level the score (73).
Eight minutes previously saw Dartford’s Sam Odaudu receive his marching orders after being given a second yellow card by the referee, Mr Joel Lamping. He was seemingly oblivious to what was going on in the game this afternoon and particularly biased with whom he dished out yellow cards to!
The red card prompted Ady Pennock into action, as he swapped Olly Box for Michael Olarewaju (66). The change came after Samir Carruthers had left the field to be replaced by Dan Carter just five minutes previously. And it would be followed by Sammie McLeod coming on for Jacob Bland (68), before Eddie Dsane replaced Dan Smith (83).
Henly pulled off another superb save to prevent Louie Johnson’s powerful strike from going in (78), before substitute Eddie Dsane stole the headlines by scoring a marvellous winner within six minutes of coming on!
Samuel Okoye’s excellent performance earned him a deserved Man of The Match award, as the defender worked tirelessly with his teammates to seal a hard-fought victory.
The result means that Dartford close the gap to today’s opponents to just two points inside the play-off places in what is an extremely tight top eight (excluding Folkestone at the summit) of the Isthmian Premier League table.
DARTFORD: Jonny Henly (c), Sam Odaudu, Joe Tennent, George Whitefield, 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.
BRENTWOOD TOWN: Aiden Prall, Wyan Reid, Matthew Cripps (c), Daniel Ogunleye, Benas Vaivada, Ethan Kaiser, Andrew Freeman, Louie Johnson, Kymani Thomas, Max Hudson, Alejandro Machado.
SUBSTITUTES: Aron Pollock, Scott Kashket, Harry Brooke, Adeyinka Cole, Charlee Hughes.
Chris Palmer