League Cup 4th rnd v Dulwich Hamlet (H) 3-1

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TonyDart
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League Cup 4th rnd v Dulwich Hamlet (H) 3-1

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Match Report – Dartford 3 Dulwich Hamlet 1 London & SE Regional Women’s League Cup
4th round (quarter-final) on Sunday 12th February 2023 at Princes Park, main stadium
Weather: Overcast and mild

Dartford Manager: Connor Dymond, Head coach: Martin McCarthy
Dartford team: Jade Charlton, Charlie Torry, Megan McKeag, Amy Reader, Georgie Davis, Adele Pearce, Liz Adams, Shauni Griffiths, Nicha Dyett, Emily Vaughan, Paris Smith
Subs: Rachel Ahern (sub for Meghan McKeag))


Warning signs were delivered by the ‘Hamlet’ on the right-wing from the very first minute when they got in a cross from the bi-line that whipped across the face of the goal. For the whole of the game that is where their main threat came from

With only a limited number of players available for this cup tie due to injuries, effective use was made when Rachel Ahern replaced Meghan McKeag who was injured in the first half, and along with central king-pin Charlie Torry repelled the Dulwich central attacks. And when Meghan was able to return to the field in the second half, she assisted Georgie Davis in shoring up the continual threat from Hamlet’s right wing.

The match was played in a typical cup-tie fashion with no halves given and plenty of 50:50 balls contested with much fervour and vigour.

On six minutes Adele Pearce got a pass through to Meghan whose shot was accurate but straight at the goalie. Then two minutes later a free-kick by Shauni Griffiths was played into the penalty area where Liz Adams got a touch on the ball which sent it agonisingly wide of the left post.

A Dulwich free-kick was delivered high and deep into the goalmouth but Jade Charlton plucked the ball out of the air with ease and confidence.

On twelves minutes, a good drop-kick from Jade reached the half-way line which Emily quickly latched onto and played a great pass off to her right for Nicha Dyett who produced a fantastic lob which the goalie managed to save just a yard off her line.

On fifteen minutes, Emily Vaughan picked up a quick throw-in from Meghan and shot first time which was accurate but the goalie was well positioned for a straight-forward save.

With Dulwich doing most of the pressing in the opening ten minutes, Darts relied somewhat on quick breaks. These were delivered with great purpose and soon the Darts were pressing the full-backs which seemed to unsettle Hamlet’s back four. This continued through the rest of the half, with Darts playing quite a high-line, to great effect looking to false them into errors.

Then in the 16th minute, from a long kick-out deep on the left, the ball bounced high next to Emily and her marker, Em got a header to it which took the ball away from her marker and into a one-on-one situation with the goalie. Emily cooly took her time and placed it neatly to the goalie’s left giving her no chance. A fine, confidently taken goal, to give Darts a 1-0 lead.

Three minutes later, a long kick by Jade found its way through to a position a few yards outside the penalty area where Nicha ran strongly into the mix with two Hamlet defenders and was brought down in the challenge for the ball right on the edge of the penalty box, but the referee, surprisingly, waved play-on.

Good hold up play by Nicha just inside Hamlet’s half earned Darts a free-kick after being fouled and this was typical of how Darts continued to put Hamlet under pressure by the ‘never-give-up-the-chase’ running, from Nicha in particular.

On 28 minutes Meghan was forced to retire from the match after suffering an injury when trying to get a cross in from the left corner flag, and substitute Rachel Ahern came on as Darts did a bit of reshuffling their defence.

On the half-an-hour mark Shauni switched to the left side for a while and got a shot away but the goalie was well-placed to save and Darts had a bit of a reshuffle in their attack with Paris Smith now on the left wing with Shauni returning to the right.

Almost immediately, a good move with Emily holding the ball before passing outside to Shauni showed great football. Shauni took on and beat her defender and played a one-two with Adele but the return pass was just a bit too strong and ran out of play. But the Darts were mixing it up well and Hamlet were often stretched as both Shauni and Paris played tight to their lines and both got good service from the midfield of Lizzie, Adele and Amy.

Dartford were now applying more pressure and Hamlet often made hard work of clearing the ball as they continually tried to play it out from the back.

On 40 minutes, a free-kick taken by Rachel was played out to Amy Reader or returned it to Rachel who then produced a great through-pass up to Lizzie. With defenders around her Lizzie worked her way into a shooting position, before a kind rebound worked to her advantage and fired in a shot from an acute angle on the right of the goal. It whisked across the goal-mouth with the goalie stranded and with Nisha rushing in at the far post a goal seemed on the cards but the pace of the ball flashed it passed both Nicha and the post by mere inches.

As the first-half neared its end a bit of a flash-point battle between Paris and her marker resulted in a free kick to Dartford. Georgie passed the ball up the line to Paris who duly one-touched a pass to Nicha. Her own pass onto Lizzie inside the penalty area reached her very fast – in fact just that bit too fast and Lizzie only had micro-seconds to try a snap-shot which for the second time in as many minutes, missed the goal by only a whisker.

HT 1-0

Darts had a dream start to the second half. In the first minute of the half, Shauni received the ball deep out on the right touch-line. She beat one, cut inside and promptly left two more defenders floundering before delivering a great pass to Lizzie Adams who volleyed it home on the turn from inside the penalty box. A superbly taken goal and a wonderful assist. 2-0

Darts continued to press the Hamlet defence and this worked to great effect with strong front running. A clearance from Adele found Emily who controlled the ball nicely and passed it to Paris who in turn played it further out to Shauni, She cut inside leaving her marker for dead and shot for goal but it flew agonisingly past the outside of the post. It would have been a great goal.

The game became more open with both sides playing some good football and ten minutes into the second half, Jade came to Darts rescue. She rushed from her penalty area to make a very important intervention to foil a threatening Hamlet attack.

To their credit, Hamlet came on stronger as a team and used their right flank to great purpose. To Georgie’s credit she stuck well to the task but Darts did have to give away a handful of corner kicks which were each delivered precisely into Jade’s six-yard box.

Charlie Torry and Rachel Ahern, had managed to keep the main threats away from the centre and thus most of Hamlet’s thrusts were down their right wing.

Eleven minutes into the half Jade had to make a daring double-save after a long through ball had for once sliced through Darts’ defence

Nicha’s continued strong running created an upset in the Hamlet defence when the defender sent her back pass to the goalie way off track but the goalie scampered to retrieve it before any damage was done.

Still with the score 2-0 in Darts favour, Hamlet began to play their best football and time and again their accurate high crosses into the box, both from open play and corner-kicks were dealt with by extreme efficiency and confidence by Jade, and aided by a goal-line clearance, Darts weathered the storm.

In the 73rd minute, after another great save by Jade she sent a long ball down the pitch where it was picked up by Shauni who passed the ball into the path of Nicha who smashed in a tremendous shot that gave the goalie no chance of saving to make it 3-0

Adele was given a well-earned breather and Meghan returned to play out the game in an area in front of Georgie thus stemming the threat from the right-wing attacks.

On 81 minutes a long-range shot swerved viciously towards Dartford’s goal but Jade held her ground and watched it all the way to make a great save to her right.

In the 87th minute Dulwich pulled a goal back when a free-kick on the right was sent in quite low and a deflection took it past Jade at the near post to make the score 3-1.

Darts played out the remaining minutes with control and purpose, and the final whistle brought with it the reality of having reached the semi-finals.

This was a very strong, all-round performance by Darts against a solid-looking Dulwich team who had knocked Ebbsfleet out in the previous round. Darts were well-organised and the game-plan was executed extremely efficiently and constant pressing of the Hamlet’s defence paid dividends. Darts played with a renewed vigour and confidence and were in control for long periods of the match

This was an outstanding team performance built on Jade’s confident handling and anticipation, through the back four, the midfield and to the ever-pressing forwards, ably supported by captain Lizzie who got into good positions in Hamlet’s penalty area on a number of occasions.

Final score: Dartford 3 Dulwich Hamlet 1 Attendance: 128

Darts now meet Sport London E Benfica, away in the semi-final of the League Cup. Venue: Middlesex F.A.’s Rectory Park, Northolt UB5 5FA taking placed on Sunday 5th March 2023.

Report by Tony Brown
Photos by Taur Everard

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