Tonbridge Angels v Dartford Sat 29 Jan 2022

[rick]

think attendance was 1205

Thanks.

[BRASSNECK]

Thought we played well in patches but was hanging on a bit at the end,2 good goals from Danny and another Jebb special.
Also Kory had a very good game.

[Spike]

Well that was a huge improvement on Tuesday night and we thoroughly deserved the 3 points. A little bit shaky at the end there but I don't think anyone could argue with the result. Danny Leonard was at his exciting best and Jack Jebbalinho's free kick was world class. These two were the pick of the bunch for me, in the end I went for Danny as my MOTM. Well played Darts, much more like it.

[KSTDART]

Well that was more like it , still a lot of work to be done to get back to our best but we showed some guts and fight today and deserved the win
First goal came from the right , Danny Leonard summoned his inner Ryan Hayes cut inside and curled the ball into the far port just like Ryno used to do.
Leonard double his goal tally and Dartford’s lead this time from the left as he calmly rounded the onrushing keeping and rolled the ball into the empty net .
Tonbridge hit back after the break and it was to and fro for much of the second half until Jebb curled home another fantastic free kick .
There was still time for Tonbridge to snatch another goal in injury time and then we cleaned one off the line which left me reaching for the emergency pants from the flag bag

Glad to say we hung on for the 3 points without anymore scares and the pants survived relatively unscathed

Enjoy the goals

[Sleightly Deceptive]

Bend it like Jebb! How many is that this season? It’s almost like getting a penalty for us! (Move over David Beckham. Oh, he has!)

[The 5th Searcher]

A much better performance than Tuesday nights game and there was certainly spells in the 1st half that was almost like watching our early season football. Some quick one twos & first time passes and knocking the ball around well which put us 2 up with both goals being well taken by Danny Leonard my MOTM.
The 2nd half we started to go back in to our old ways a bit, we seemed to ease off the pace and let Tonbridge back into the game. Some very sloppy play allowed the Tonbridge winger all the time & space in the world to get the ball and run at goal where he slotted the ball home for 1-2 and then the pressure started a bit from Tonbridge.
Thankfully a Jebb special into the top corner opened the gap a bit for 1-3 and what should have been us shutting up shop but NO some very sloppy defending allowing Tonbridge’s sub to have a totally free header from a free kick to score and make it 2-3 which fired Tonbridge up and had it not been for a goal line clearance it would’ve been 3-3 but thankfully we held on for the win and the 3pts.

Hopefully it will install a bit of confidence into the team and fire them up for Tuesday nights derby match but with Leonard & Azeez picking up injuries today it will be yet another interesting line up. Azeez looks like a hamstring injury & Leonard possible concussion both will probably be out for a couple of weeks.

Tuesday night is still going to need a much improved performance though if we are to get anything from this game.

[rick]

Match report: https://thedarts.eu/2021-2022/105 vs To ... A- 3-2.pdf

[JCJ]

Great to get a victory at last, hopefully kick starts our season again and we go on a run

Great goals from Danny and Jebby Ade unlucky with his header all be a great save from the goalkeeper

I understand Jake not starting today his 35 so maybe 3 games in a week is to much

Thought Tonbridge very physical and once again very poor decision from the officials giving goal kick when it so obviously was a corner and never pulled them up on their shirt pulling
On to Tuesday and make winning a good habit

[MickW]

Great to be back to winning ways - lets hope this is the start of our next run, well done lads.

[Grassbank]

My first away league game for far too long. Pleased with the performance although we are still overrun in the middle too often for my liking. Far more clinical in front of goal today. Three well taken goal and Ade was unlucky to be denied by a great save from their keeper.

Could not work out what the ref was doing. He turned a blind eye to constant shirt pulling and wrestling, but insisted on a proper ten yards for the free kick that ultimately won us the game.

Great effort from the team. The importance of this win showed in their behaviour at the end of the match. They were ecstatic.

Thank you to the black and white army for helping make this a most enjoyable afternoon. The noise was terrific.

Come on you DARTS!

[The 5th Searcher]

One thing I did notice today was by not having a left midfielder / winger it left Kai Innocents wide open with no cover at all in front of him.
This is basically how Tonbridge scored their 1st goal because he had some much space on that side.

[PeteSamson]

Yes. Well done indeed to the Darts fans. So often they come across loud and clear at our away games as our 12th man, but this afternoon, it was even louder over the commentary. Well done to the commentary team too!

That win has been a long time coming, so supporters have done well to hang on in there after recent results.
So well done Darts on getting back to winning ways.

I'm not getting carried away on the basis of 1 result, because even today we came very close to dropping 2 points towards the end after appearing to have the best of the play overall. But bring on Ebbsfleet and hopefully we have turned the corner. Looking forward to that match commentary.

COYD

[Tall Dart]

thanks for the goals Kev! spotted there defender taking an unfortunate one on the second goal Haha...

nice to read on the performance today. We needed a result today or very soon to help turn things around.

[Trevor B]

The weather warmed up and we got the win so I was pleased to have watched this game especially the three goals and my MOM went to Danny
I hope he is o.k. after he took the knock was it concussion ?
A very good first half but sloppy defending in the second half lead to the two Tonbridge goals but a special mention to our player (not sure who) that was perfectly positioned to clear the ball off the line in the last few minutes when the equaliser looked certain to go in.
Well done to the whole team on the win

[M1 South]

Who was the Phantom ‘Clearer off the liner’?

[Park Life]

I thought it was Kai.

[Aprouddart]

Much better performance than against Concord (but frankly that wasn't hard), great to get a win in the league at last.

Danny MOM, two well taken goals and could have had his hat-trick but for an excellent last ditch tackle from Tonbridge,
also a foul on Danny that resulted in the Jebb free kick goal. As others have said still not controlling midfield and
too often wide open down our left hand side. New guy looked very comfortable on the ball, not a typical stopper
centre back, as somebody else said think he would also be good as a defensive midfielder.

[Tony H]

My summary:
- Much better performance - I’d say the culmination of a weeks worth of hard work by the management and players alike (Great War cry by Tom Bonner on Twitter during the week btw!)
- Poor performance (again!) by the match officials
- Don’t discredit the effort Tonbridge put in, especially the 2nd half
- Darts fans were superb (best in this Division by far!)
- Work still to do but Kingy will get it right
- We won boys, get in!!!!

[Tony H]

Oh, and my MotM vote. Totally agree that Danny Leonard was superb (not so sure he’s had a bad game for us, has he!?) but my vote’s gone to Jebby. Made things tick in midfield - his distribution was good, great turn of pace in possession to drive at the Tonbridge defence caused them one or two anxieties, and his free kick for our 3rd…..sublime!!

[rick]