Eastbourne 0-0 Dartford

The tie was marred by a blustery end-to-end wind which favoured Dartford in the first half, a couple of second half handbag skirmishes and some lengthy treatment to Steve Brinkhurst who, in falling, jarred his cheekbone.

Eastbourne’s midfielder, who had been wearing a face-mask, was led from the field to be replaced by Ross Treleaven.

Darts had most of the early play and were not really challenged throughout the game.

Lee Noble was his usual self, stinging the home defence like the busy bee he is.

On the left Danny Harris made good use of the space afforded him by the home defence and Darts were looking much more likely to score.

Around the half-hour mark Lee Burns went narrowly wide with a thunderous drive and Jacob Erskine was just off target with a deft header.

Dartford then forced a right-sided corner reached Noble and his shot was deflected for a corner on the left.

As seems to be a recent feature of games involving Dartford, the opposition staged a rally just before half-time but nothing came of it.

The wind upped its volume for the second half and although Eastbourne had it at their backs, they tended to over hit the ball.

Maybe frustration set in for there was a bit of a fracas on the edge of Darts’ penalty area.

A better one ensued early on into time added on. James Rogers went to pick the ball up for a throw in but was impeded by a home player, which resulted in the Dart pushing him out of the way.

The home bench imploded and the referee spent the rest of stoppage time trying to restore order.

Finally, Carl Rook made a 10-minute appearance to a mixed reception by both sets of supporters.

And so now to the replay on Tuesday at Princes Park.

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Dartford: Wells, Jones, Green, Bonner, Goodacre, Champion, Noble, Wallis, Erskine (Rogers 57), Burns, Harris (Garrod). Subs not used. Hayes, Graham, Ibrahim. Att 504