London & SE Regional Women’s League, Premier Division
Sunday 24th September 2023 in Princes Park Stadium
Joint Managers: Connor Dymond & Martin McCarthy; Coach Steve Sales, Physio Geoff Williamson
Team: Jade Charlton, Gabby Howell, Jo Woodgates, Chana Hinds, Meghan McKeag, Lizzie Adams,
Shannon Wason, Shauni Griffiths, Gemma Shepherd, Emily Vaughan, Emily Read
Subs (all used): Paris Smith, Hannah Thomas, Georgie Davis, Emily Woodhouse, Molly Hawkins
In a match where Dartford built their game solidly from the back, Ashford United didn’t offer too much threat, and Dartford eased to a 3-0 win, their sixth win on the trot that consolidated their position at the top of the league.
In the opening minutes a lovely ball over the defence got Shauni Griffiths into the action and provided a great cross which Emily Read, coming in fast at the far post, couldn’t quite capitalise on. From the resultant corner it fell awkwardly for Emily Vaughan but still got her shot away but was smothered at the 2nd attempt by the goalie on her line.
Meghan suffered what at first looked like a bad ankle injury but thankfully she soon back on her feet and ready to “run it off.”
Then on six minutes Jade’s long kick reached Emily Vaughan and forced a corner off the close marking defenders. Shauni’s corner was played short, a one-to-one with Meghan and although Shauni beat her ‘man’ was immediately closed down to stop an effective cross coming in.
Then, after eight minutes, Gabby played a lovely one-two with Emily Read, who put through a great pass for Emily Vaughan who beat the defence and buried the ball in the back of the net, but was disappointed to have it ruled out for offside.
A couple of minutes later Darts’ gifted the Ashford striker was a golden opportunity to score but Jade stood her ground and forced the striker into shooting instead of placing her shot and Jade made a comfortable save from the stinging shot.
The all-important opening goal came after 12 minutes after Shauni had powered in a shot that was beaten down by the defence but the ball fell nicely to Lizzie who cooly slotted it home just inside the left-hand post to give Darts’ the lead.
In the next minute a good run and passing move began with Gemma. She fed the ball onto Shauni, who played it to Meghan who returned it back to Gemma in a sweet three-‘man’ triangle. Gemma then sent over a great diagonal cross which Emily Read neatly collected. She cut back and sent over a low cross into the goal-mouth which the first defender made a complete hash of clearing, but luckily the keeper was alert to the danger and smothered the ball with Emily Vaughan steaming in to prey on any mistakes or spills.
Not long after, Emily Read robbed her marker on the right and sent over a deeper cross this time and Shauni unleashed a vicious half-volley but the ball rose too quickly and passed over the bar.
Dartford were well on top but striving to break down Ashford’s resolute defence. On 16 minutes Shannon’s nicely weighted ball for Shauni just ran a little too fast and rolled kindly on to the goalie.
On 22 mins Shauni took an in-swinging corner, delivering it neatly into the 6-yard box, but although initially cleared, this went only as far as Jo who took a pot-shot at the target and although goal-bound it struck a defender and went out for another corner.
The next minute Dartford spread the ball around neatly, playing confidently out from the back. Rarely did Ashford press Dartford’s back four and Ashford really only gained possession when Darts’ players tried more of the pin-point passing, which on occasions let them down, thus giving possession to a grateful Ashford side. Throughout the game Darts had good possession with Ashford relying on the offside trap and pairing up to try and deal with the threat of Shauni, Meghan and Gemma down the left and Emily Read and Gabby down the right.
As the game progressed, on quite a few occasions Darts’ managed to beat the offside by getting in behind the backs and one such move saw Shauni and Meghan work the ball close to the Ashford bi-line, where Meghan, with the ball right on the line, produced a great cross, but was fractionally too heavy and deep for Emily Read who, in the end, only had the tightest of angles in which to deliver back into the 6-yard box but the ball ran unkindly and just out of play, right next to the goal post.
On 28 minutes Jo made a good strong header out of defence which found Shannon who passed over to Gabby. She produced a lovely ball over the defence for Emily Vaughan, but the last defender shepherded the ball back safely to their keeper.
In the next minute Shauni played a beautiful through ball to Emily Vaughan who produced a quality shot which thundered against the underside of the bar and out to safety.
Emily Vaughan powers in a shot
Just a minute or so before half-time Gemma tried to link up with Emily Vaughan but was intercepted by a defender but was only cleared as far as Jo who fired in a thunderous shot that bounced once but safely into the goalie’s arms
Ashford United really didn’t make full use of their free kicks. There were three that needed a good delivery into Dartford’s box but on each occasion they were over-hit.
HT 1-0
With Darts one goal to the good, another was still needed to allay any fears of a fightback, and Ashford were no pushovers and their strength was certainly in their defence with deep lying midfield players, but less of a force going forward.
There was a lovely piece of trickery from Gemma which nearly set up Lizzie but was a let-off for Ashford as a defender did just enough to put her off her shot.
Fifteen minutes into the second half and Darts finally got their reward. A shove in the back on Gemma resulted in a free-kick about 40 yards out. With a four-‘man’ wall, Meghan played it quick and diagonally for Lizzie who passed on to Gabby and then nicely out to Emily Read who produced one of her ‘Gems’ of a cross and there was Gemma who leapt above everyone to head home strongly to put Darts into a 2-0 lead.
Darts didn’t allow Ashford any joy in their attacks, all being repelled by Jo and Chana who controlled the back line very efficiently.
Ashford momentarily stepped up their presence for a few minutes and were quicker to the tackles but this was only short-lived.
Now with a two-goal lead, Darts could enjoy the situation of being able to bring on, at separate times, all of the substitutes, such was Darts’ dominance.
Dartford produced many corners in the second period but it wasn’t until the 5th minute of time added on, that Darts finally get their third goal. A good header forward into the box brought hesitation in Ashford’s defence and with the ball very much ‘alive’ in the danger area, Paris was alert to the situation and guided a delicate glancing flick low down past the goalie into the far-right hand corner, just scraping the post on the way in.
FT 3-0
Summary:
Darts’ playing their first match in their new Bericote Powerhouse (DVS on their backs) shirts of Black and White halves, played a very controlled game. Always willing to play it back and ‘start again’ Ashford were forever ‘chasing the game’ and such was Dartford’s patient way of playing it out calmly from the back, then using their ‘flying wing-backs’, this gave so much support to Shauni and Emily on the wings that only time would tell when Ashford would concede. Darts’ also had to show patience up front where Ashford played an effective and well-drilled offside trap and when needed, got players back in numbers.
With Gemma winning almost 100% of her heading duels, and Darts trying their utmost to find that accuracy in their flick-ons, lay-offs and precision ‘killer’ diagonal passes, there was so much more to this win than simply a 3-0 margin.
Work still needs to be done on the clinical passes (but what team doesn’t!) and it must be emphasised that not all opposition will give our defenders so much ‘luxury’ time on the ball. But having said that, Dartford have scored seven goals in their last two games, twenty in all and conceded just five goals in the six games so far played, so that all speaks volumes of this team and squad, and not forgetting the management team! - not forgetting the clean sheet!
Well done Darts.
Report by Tony Brown
Photos by ABC Video and Taur Everard. (see also Dartford FC Women Facebook and Instagram pages for more of their work at this game)