Dartford set up Halifax trip with Bromley triumph (From News Shopper)

Dartford 4-2 Bromley

11:56am Monday 14th January 2013 in Football

BROMLEY could not repeat last season’s FA Cup victory at Princes Park on Saturday as they were eliminated from the last 16 of the FA Trophy by Conference side Dartford.

In an entertaining game Bromley enjoyed more of the ball in the early exchanges, forcing two corners in the opening four minutes.

The second by Tony Finn was punched away from underneath the bar by Darts keeper Marcus Bettenelli from Tony Finn’s in swinging flag kick.

Pierre Joseph-Dubois broke through on goal one minute later, only to drag his effort wide of the post.

With their first attack on goal, Dartford opened the scoring on six minutes.

A poor back pass by Liam Harwood went straight to debutant Dominic Green and the on loan Dagenham & Redbridge winger accepted the gift gratefully to slip a shot past Joe Welch.

Undeterred, Bromley hit back and Finn shot over from a good position before they scored a deserved equaliser on 19 minutes. Ali Fuseini broke up an attack in the centre circle by heading to Elliott Buchanan, who turned to pick out Joseph-Dubois and he placed a shot from just inside of the area wide of Bettenelli.

Danny Waldren went close with a header and Dartford’s keeper just beat Joseph-Dubois to Fuseini’s through ball.

One minute later, and somewhat against the run of play, Dartford went ahead for the second time as Nathan Collier showed Harwood a clean pair of heels when he fastened onto a long clearance out of defence to cross.

Poor defensive marking by Sanchez Ming allowed Green to chest the ball down before sweetly shooting past an exposed Bromley keeper.

Buchanan had a chance to level a few minutes later, but his well-struck shot in a one-on-one with the keeper crashed into the side-netting.

The home side then had three good chances to increase their lead.

Harry Crawford headed wide from Ryan Hayes’ free-kick before Joe Welch did well to deny Crawford by palming away his volley.

Then Hayes combined well with Green to set up Collier, but Welch did well to narrow the angle and the striker could only find the side-netting.

Bromley went agonisingly close to levelling the tie on 44 minutes as Finn picked out Buchanan, whose left-foot drive beat Bettenelli but came back off the bar.

The second half was just seven minutes old when the hosts effectively killed the game with a third goal. Lee Burns played a one-two with Hayes, which left Burns with a clear strike at goal to beat Welch at the near post.

Bromley might have reduced the arrears on 62 minutes when Buchanan blocked a clearance and the ball rebounded to Joseph-Dubois.

However, his goal-bound shot on the turn had the sting taken out of it by a defender’s leg and the keeper was able to make a comfortable save.

The home side further increased their lead on 66 minutes after another mistake. Following a Bromley corner, Finn dwelled on the ball too long before being robbed of posission by Collier on the edge of the Dartford area. He promptly sent a pass up field via Green to Crawford and Dartford’s leading scorer raced away to add to his season’s tally with a firm cross-shot past the advancing Welch.

Bromley did reduce the arrears on 70 minutes as Finn rolled a pass across the face of the goal and Joseph-Dubois nipped in behind two defenders to tap a shot over the line from two yards.

A series of substitutions for both sides broke up the pattern of play in the closing stages, although Bromley substitute Ali Chaaban had two reasonable chances, finding the side-netting with one and shooting just wide with the other.

Dartford’s reward is an away quarter-final tie at Halifax.

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