Dartford 1-2 Bury Town

LIFE at the summit appears short-lived as Darts, who had climbed to joint top in midweek, tripped up at home to Bury Town.

Prior to kick-off, Tommy Osborne was presented with a bottle of bubbly to mark his 200th starting appearance for the Club.

A repeat of the midweek win at Waltham Forest looked on the cards when an early free-kick was hit to Ryan Hayes.

His curler to the far post was headed firmly past Greygoose and into the net by the inevitable Brendon Cass.

Bury countered and Tony Kessell had to be alert to field a Smith shot.

Greygoose was then called into action again as a Jamie Coyle free-kick out wide was held at full stretch and then a Cass effort clattered the bar with Greygoose clutching air.

Although the Bury attack needed watching with Smith, Sam Reed and Cornwell showing great pace and first time control, Dartford's back four were controlling the game.

With Hayes weekly getting back to his best and Phil Williams and Eddie McClements working well together, there seemed to be little danger.

However, on 23 minutes, left-winger Lee Reed fed a low cross to Sam Reed who picked his spot with a diving header to level matters.

Bury were uncompromising at the back and yellow cards were shown to Steward and Cornwell, who were a bit over-zealous in their treatment of Williams.

On the half-hour mark, a good run and shot from Williams caught Greygoose flat-footed with the Bury keeper being rescued by his defence.

Attacking the Brooklands end after the break, Darts started to up the pressure but, a bit out of the blue, another Lee Reed cross found Sam Reed in isolation and the pacy number nine put the visitors in front.

Bury's tactics were simple and they shored up their defence to keep the twin-pronged Darts attack at bay.

The referee became busier and, almost inevitably, a second yellow was shown to Steward, and Bury spent the final 12 minutes one short and decidedly on the back foot.

Corners were conceded freely and only slightly unsteady finishing and a scooping goal-line save from Greygoose prevented an equaliser.

Patrons' Club man of the match Williams was replaced by Mark Green and Tom Bradbrook came on for double-centurion Osborne, but the visitors held out.

Perhaps, in the end, the sparkle of Tuesday evening was not quite there.

Dartford: Kessell, Coyle, Norman, Flanagan, Osborne (Bradbrook 81), O'Brien, Hayes, May, Cass, McClements, Williams (Green 73). Subs not used: Moore, Lewis, Avery. Att: 824.