DARTFORD enjoyed a comfortable victory over a West Ham XI at Princes Park last night.

The West Ham XI as a mix of academy players, reserves and a former French international striker in Frédéric Piquionne but Dartford were too sharp for the visitors in two early goalmouth incidents and were 2-0 up before all of the 1,524 spectators were in place.

Failure to deal with balls into the box allowed Ryan Hayes and Jacob Erskine to find the net and, to all intents and purposes, kill the game off.

To everyone’s credit, both sides came to play football and the crowd were regally entertained.

A familiar name from Dartford’s past appeared on the teamsheet in Mark Arber, the son of former player Bobby Arber who was an incisive foil to fellow defender Bob Makin in the John Still managed side which won promotion to the then Gola League.

Dartford always kept the edge throughout the game being just that bit quicker to the ball and slightly more imaginative distribution wise.

At half-time manager Tony Burman replaced Hayes, Erskine, Donovan Simmonds, Tom Bonner, Elliot Bradbrook and Tom Champion with Nathan Collier, Lee Noble, Ian Daly, James Rogers, Tony Sinclair and Tom Champion (but not necessary in that order).

A couple of Hammers showed some frustration in the second half which resulted in cards being produced.

They even conceded a penalty and Noble made it 3-0 by hitting the spot kick wide of Raphael Spiegel’s dive to his left.

Dartford are at home to another East End side on Saturday, with Leyton Orient the visitors to Princes Park (3pm).

Follow us on Twitter @NewsShopperSprt

Starting teams – Dartford: Wells, Burns, Green, Bonner, Arber, Wallis, Hayes, Simmonds, Erskine, Bradbrook, Harris.

West Ham: Spiegel, Chambers, Shaw, Hunt. Tunnicliffe, Wearen, Powell, Fanimo, Piquionne, Sadler, Vose. Att: 1,524.