Dartford 4-0 Aveley

DARTFORD bounced back from Saturday's shock 4-0 defeat at Ware with an equally emphatic victory against Aveley 48 hours later at Princes Park, writes Mike Brett-Smith.

The Darts took the stage with Tommy Osborne and Mark Green making their first starts of the season, replacing Richard Avery and Alex Martin respectively, the latter being on the bench.

Attacking the Brooklands end in a typical Bank Holiday heat wave, Darts showed the verve and sparkle missing at Ware.

First, a tricky Jay May run ended with a Brendan Cass flick going narrowly wide and then Mark Green was just wide under pressure.

There followed two corners from the second of which, Darts had the ball in the net only for the effort to be ruled out for offside.

No matter. A high, bouncing cross from the right was controlled by May and slotted home just inside the near post midway through the half.

Aveley then started to show their paces particularly along the left, prompted by skipper Kevin Marsden.

Tony Kessell was forced into action, saving a certain goal from a close range shot at the far post.

Matt Bodkin then came into the picture with a couple of tight control diagonal runs from right to left, the second of which was headed home by May just before the break.

May completed his hat-trick 12 minutes into the second half with his fifth goal in four outings.

He was set free by an astute through pass up the middle, which split the Aveley defence, and a solo run at the goal ended with the striker firing home under the visiting goalie to make it game, set and match.

Aveley were down but not out and were awarded a nothing penalty.

However, Kessell made it two spot kick saves out of two as he pounced on the penalty and preserved his second clean sheet from four games.

Following a brace of substitutions, one being Richard Avery for Steve Norman who took a heavy blow to the leg, Cass scored a replica of his fine solo run from midway on the left he managed against Malden to score the pick of the goals and lay to rest the dark ghost of the Ware nightmare.

Dartford: Kessell, Osborne (Moore 78), Norman (Avery 67), Flanagan, Guest, O'Brien, Green, May, Cass, Coyle (Potter 85), Bodkin. Subs nor used: Bradbrook, Martin. Att: 969