Dartford 2-1 Hampton (From News Shopper)

Dartford 2-1 Hampton

3:17pm Monday 22nd August 2011 in Sport By Mike Brett-Smith

DARTFORD lead the way in the Conference South after Saturday’s 2-1 Princes Park success over Hampton & Richmond Borough.

When once asked by David Coleman in a BBC interview, Bill Shankley said he would be pleased if his Liverpool side played six good games in a season.

Darts are not there at the moment but are heading in the right direction.

On the other hand they do conform to former manager Bob Makin's requirement of conceding less than a goal a game, with a current average tally of 0.67 goals against.

Visitors Hampton & Richmond Borough have enjoyed a good record against Darts of late.

But the blight was swept aside comfortably as the home side cruised to a 2-0 lead in the space of seven minutes early in the first half.

Elliot Bradbrook was hauled down in the Academy End penalty area and Charlie Sheringham duly converted the resultant spot-kick on 13 minutes.

Seven minutes later a right-side corner from Ryan Hayes was headed back by Tom Bonner for Bradbrook to crash home from close range.

The visitors got into the game when, two minutes later, the gangling Jacob Erskine toe-poked a shot past Andrew Young from inside the six-yard box.

Thereafter the game became, by recent standards, a little low key but, at the same time, Darts were rarely troubled.

Hampton did rattle the home crossbar in the second half but they also had a big let-off when Sheringham failed to convert a second penalty awarded late in the game.

Still, this was a good afternoon's work and now for two tough games in the space of five days – both away from home.

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Dartford: Young, Jones, Green, Bonner, Goodacre, Champion, Hayes (Noble 65), Wallis (Burns 79), Sheringham, Bradbrook, Graham (Harris 70). Subs not used: Rogers, Ibrahim. Att: 937.