Dartford 2-0 Redbridge

GOALS either side of half-time from Jay May and John Guest strengthened Dartford's title ambitions on Saturday.

Darts brought in Eddie McClements for Phil Williams in an otherwise unchanged line-up for the tough encounter with Redbridge.

Defending the Brooklands end on a bright but bitter afternoon, Darts were soon under heavy bombardment and took a while to get into their stride.

When they did so, it was chiefly through the indefatigable Ryan Hayes who terrorised Redbridge's left flank all afternoon.

The pressure endured by Dartford during the first half was of two versions - the bog standard aerial type and some neat weaving passing movements, neither of which was ultimately effective.

Darts, on the other hand, had less possession but used it better.

Just when the first half looked like drifting into half-time stalemate, May collected the ball just inside the visitors' half, spotted Ryan Hayes free and fed him with an accurate pass.

Hayes shimmied past two defenders, cut inside and clipped a pass to May who, running round the defence, power-headed past Tony Tucker to give Darts the lead.

Deflated, Redbridge held the score until half-time.

They set off to grab an equaliser, but were rocked around 10 minutes after the restart when Guest ran out of defence into Redbridge territory and passed diagonally to Hayes.

He ghosted behind the visiting defence and, spotting Guest still running, slipped a low pass into his path before the central defender fired a cheeky back heel to put Darts 2-0 up.

Thereafter, Darts got better and better and Redbridge were rapidly coming unglued, foundering on the rock-solid Darts' back four.

With the clock ticking down, a May close-range shot struck a defender's arm but Hayes lofted the resultant penalty over the bar.

Dartford: Kessell, Coyle, Norman, Flanagan, Guest, O'Brien, Hayes (Green 80), May, Cass (Williams 86), McClements, Kadi. Subs not used: Osborne, Avery, and Lewis. Att: 1,202