DIAL M FOR – DARTS GO
DOMINANT Dartford produced a determined display against fellow promotion chasers St Albans City to move up to fourth place.
Both sides came to Princes Park hoping to get back to winning ways after dropping points on Easter Monday.
Dartford had lost their unbeaten home record after a 1-0 defeat by Maidstone United. St Albans, meanwhile, had drawn 0-0 with Hampton and Richmond.
The game struggled to get going in the early exchanges with neither side conjuring a shot in a scrappy first half.
Jack Jebb registered the first shot of the game when the midfielder smashed a half-volley narrowly wide of Michael Johnson’s right post on 26 minutes after St Albans struggled to clear their lines.
Dartford then had another opportunity on 32 minutes when Kalvin Kalala took down a beautiful cross-field ball from Samir Carruthers before driving across the six-yard-box before it was hurried away by the visitors for a corner.
This seemed to alert St Albans who launched a swift counter-attack a minute later thought they could not convert.
St Albans then worked a good exchange on the left and could have taken the lead when the ball was cut back to John Goddard who scuffed his effort, though it only just went the wrong side of Reice Charles-Cook’s post.
Dartford’s Ade Azeez was thwarted on 44 minutes by an expert point-blank save from Johnson after the forward spun off of his defender and volleyed fiercely.
From the corner, the Darts took the lead through Keiran Murtagh who powered his header into the far corner after finding himself free in the box to net his first goal of the season.
The second half started much brighter than the first as Dartford sought to seal the win early.
The Darts almost doubled their lead on 48 minutes when Kalala was played through by Marcus Dinanga with the forward’s square pass almost being turned into his own net by Joy Mukena.
Despite the Darts’ start, it was St Albans who scored next levelling through Shaun Jeffers who was left on his own to head comfortably from Zane Banton’s cross on 54 minutes.
Murtagh had waited all season to score and netted his second on 65 minutes tapping in from a well-placed Jebb free-kick from midway in the Dartford half to restore the hosts’ lead.
Dinanga scored Dartford’s third on 79 minutes rounding off a quick move started by a determined Jordan Greenidge to round off a confident display for the home side.
DARTFORD: (4-4-2): Charles-Cook 7; Wynter 6, Campbell 6, Roberts 8, Bonner 7; Murtagh 9, Carruthers 7 (Durojaiye, 83), Jebb 7; Dinanga 8, Kalala 6 (Leonard 6, 76), Azeez 6 (Greenidge 6, 76) Subs not used: Robinson, Hyde
TEAM: (4-3-3): Johnson 6; Clark 6, Adebiyi 6, Mukena 6, Lankshear 6; Wiltshire 6, Goddard 7 (Sole, 80), Noble 6 (Brown, 80); Jeffers 7, Banton 7, Neal 6 (Weiss, 71) Subs not used:
Bender, Diedhiou
STAR MAN: Keiran Murtagh (Dartford)
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