Dartford are back at Princes Park on Tuesday night in their Isthmian Premier home opener against Potters Bar Town.
The Darts got off to a winning start on the weekend in a local derby at Cray Valley Paper Mills. Adrian Pennock handed out eight debuts to new signings and academy graduates as his new look side beat the Isthmian Division One South East champions.
Injury to goalkeeper Jacob Marsden in the final pre-season match meant late loan signing from Sutton United, Matt Kerbey made his first appearance. Duane Ofori-Acheampong and Samir Carruthers will be unavailable on Tuesday night, but Oliver Box made a return on Saturday and an impact.
Box linked up well with new striker Callum Jones in the first half and the pair combined for Dartford’s first goal of the season. The away side went in at the break ahead, but it could have been more than 1-0. Early in the second-half Cray Valley Paper Mills had Hassan Ibrahiym sent off, however the Millers still managed to equalise controversially through Tom Chambers. Then a moment of magic by Denzelle Olopade won Dartford the game when he curled home a shot from 30 yards.
Pennock couldn’t have wished for a better start, especially the first half an hour of the match, he spoke to kentonline after the victory and commented: “We’ve got a good mix of youth and experience. I thought the first 25-30 minutes was excellent and we should have been 4-0 up by half-time”. The Dartford boss added: “We’ve got to be very pleased with the three points. You always want to start with a win. If we were standing here and it was 1-1 after playing against ten men for so long, we’d be disappointed”.
Potters Bar Town had a disastrous start to their campaign losing 8-0 at home to Dover Athletic. After half an hour the match was all square until the Scholars collapsed and went in at half-time 4-0 down. Goalkeeper Seb Stacey was signed on loan from Milton Keynes Dons just 24 hours before kick-off. Dover Athletic’s George Nikaj helped himself to a hat-trick, whilst Luke Baptiste, Ruben Soares-Junior, Harrison Pont, Joe Tennent and Jaiden Drakes-Thomas all got in on the act.
Manager Max Mitchell apologised to the fans who travelled to Kings Langley to watch the home defeat. He said: “It was a performance that left me a little bit shell-shocked, in all honesty, to go from a team competing last Saturday against St Albans to today was two completely different sides”.
It’s been 17 years since the Darts hosted the Scholars in what became a title winning season under Tony Burman. Dartford went on to lift the Isthmian Division One North and in that campaign they beat Potters Bar Town 4-0 at home.
Junior Kadi, Ryan Hayes and Brendon Cass combined to set up Jay May for the opener. Cass doubled the lead and Kadi added a third from a tight angle. Elliot Bradbrook rounded up the scoring by netting the fourth. The previous ‘home’ match against the Scholars ended in a 2-1 defeat pre-Princes Park in 2006.
Since then the Darts have climbed to the top of non-league before relegation returned them back to the Isthmian Premier last season. Meanwhile Potters Bar Town were runners up of the Isthmian Division One North in 2018. A reorganisation of step three meant the Scholars didn’t need to participate in the playoffs that season. Instead, they won promotion and for the first time reached the Isthmian Premier. The Scholars have recently spent four full campaigns in the Premier finishing between thirteenth and sixteenth in each season.
After one month of last season it looked like the Hertfordshire club were in for a long campaign. Six straight defeats from the opening day left the Scholars joint bottom, but they finally got off the mark against eventual runners up Chatham Town mid-September. Potters Bar Town went on to lose just four from the next 26 fixtures. However, early season form returned as they finished the campaign with one win and nine defeats.
Head to Head
Dartford wins: 2 / Potters Bar Town wins: 1 / Draws: 1
Previous Meetings
Potters Bar Town 2 – 2 Dartford (05/04/2008 – Isthmian Division One North)
Dartford 4 – 0 Potters Bar Town (27/10/2007 – Isthmian Division One North)
Dartford 1 – 2 Potters Bar Town (11/03/2006 – Southern League Div One East)
Potters Bar Town 1 – 4 Dartford (08/10/2005 – Southern League Div One East)
Statistics
- Dartford are unbeaten in the last two matches against Potters Bar Town (W1, D1)
- The Darts kept the only clean sheet in this fixture the last time they hosted the Scholars at Princes Park
- Dartford have won one of their last 11 home league games and that was on the final day of last season (D4, L6)
On This Day
Pierre Fonkeu was at the double two years ago on this day when the Darts beat Cheshunt 2-1 at Princes Park. Dartford have won both their home games on 13 August and recorded the same score in 1968, the Darts beat Guildford City in the Southern League First Division. In between those victories Dartford have been on the road winning three all on the opening day. Whitstable Town were defeated 3-1 in 1994 and Arlesley Town 1-0 in 2005. Six years later, Elliot Bradbrook, Tom Bonner and a Charlie Sheringham brace sealed a 4-0 triumph at Weston-super-Mare. Aldershot Town were victorious in 2013 and the Darts claimed a 1-1 draw at Chelmsford City in 2016, Luke Wanadio scoring for Dartford.
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