DARTFORD wnt down to their first defeat of the campaign when they went down to a 3-2 defeat at Basingstoke on Saturday.

The day stated badly thanks to a snarl-up on the M25, a problem which was exacerbated by the coach driver who started out by taking a couple of diversions early on before throwing his lot in with the rest of the traffic, taking the M25-M3 route come what may.

The upshot was a loss of pre-match preparation time.

After keeping an unchanged starting line-up for six straight games, Tony Burman had to bring in Deren Ibrahim for keeper Andrew Young, who was on Best Man duty.

Darts played up the slope on the well-grassed Camrose Stadium with the home side taking a fourth minute lead when Delano Sam-Yorke got enough on a Tim Sill’s flick to beat Ibrahim from close range.

Just before the quarter-hour Charlie Sheringham was held in the Stoke box.

Despite having to retake the penalty after encroachment, Sheringham showed true nerve by beating Ashley Bayes again.

Clearly incensed, a number of Basingstoke players took up their cause with the referee but to no avail.

Late in the half both left-backs scored from free-kicks, Adam Green for Darts and Toby Little for the home side, Little having the edge on deflections.

The least said about the second the better.

Suffice to say Shaun McCauley sewed up the points for the home side eight minutes after the interval with the best deflected free-kick of the afternoon.

Basingstoke had chances to add to their tally including a McCauley effort which hit the inside of Ibrahim’s left post.

Late on Tom Bonner almost stole a point but his header went over from in front of goal.

Dartford are back in action at Princes Park on Saturday against Eastleigh at 3pm.

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Dartford: Ibrahim, Jones. Green, Bonner, Goodacre, Champion, Hayes (Harris 59), Wallis, Sheringham, Bradbrook (Burns 65), Graham (Noble 75). Subs not used: Rogers, Pallen. Att: 493.