DARTFORD maintained their title push with a comfortable home win over Farnborough.

Farnborough were the in-form team of the division going into the game having won six on the bounce.

But they were dispatched by a completely dominant Dartford side who might have gone a goal up inside 20 seconds.

A neat dink found Jacob Erskine who, just as he made contact with the ball, had it snatched from his head by visiting keeper Craig Bradshaw. Sadly for the Farnborough they lost their only effective player late in the game through a freak injury sustained midway through the second half. By then, of course, the game was dead and buried.

Presumably Farnborough’s run of form was founded on the style adopted on Saturday, an in your face approach carried out at high speed, almost as high as their lofted balls out of defence.

It is difficult to counter such tactics and normally opponents tend to fight fire with fire.

Watched by the club’s special guest FA president David Bernstein, Dartford got the ball down to ground floor level and dominated matters.

The breakthrough came on 18 minutes when Jacob Erskine latched on to a pass, drew Bradshaw and glided a shot just inside the keeper’s left post.

Bradshaw, an experienced custodian, kept Darts at bay for the rest of the half and the teams trooped off with Dartford a goal to the good.

It couldn’t last and didn’t. For a brief moment Farnborough threatened to get back on terms, but a shot from Nicholas Giardini was well off target. On 52 minutes came another cheeky Erskine piece of magic which saw him draw Bradshaw, knock the ball past him and tap it over the line.

There followed a flurry of substitutions by both managers, the vital one of which allowed Tony Garrod to score an 88th minute coup-de-grace after just eight seconds on the pitch.

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Dartford: Wells, Jones, Green, Bonner, Wilkinson, Champion, Noble (Bradbrook 85), Wallis, Erskine (Garrod 87), Graham, Harris (Hayes 72). Subs not used: Burns, Ibrahim. Att: 1,374.