Match report: Dartford 5 Aylesford 0
London & SE Regional Women’s League Cup, 3rd round, played on Sunday 7th January 2024
at Princes Park Stadium
Team: Jade Charlton, Charlie Torry, Jo Woodgates, Georgie Davis, Gabby Howell, Chana Hinds,
Bethany Powell, Molly Smith, Emily Vaughan, Nicha Dyett, Shauni Griffiths
Subs: (used) – Emily Read, Xayla-Rae Alberts, Paris Smith, Emily Woodhouse, Lizzie Adams
Scorers: Nicha Dyett (3,2pens), Emily Vaughan, Lizzie Adams
Darts overcame an early scare after 3 minutes when a bit of a scramble in the penalty area was only finally cleared at the third attempt but as it turned out that was just the closest Aylesford would come to scoring, albeit for an efficient turn over the crossbar by Jade later in the half.
Darts settled into their rhythmic style of play. Playing possession football from the back with Chana, Jo, Georgie and Gabby all experimenting with passes either through midfield or the longer searching passes for Nicha Dyett, Emily Vaughan and Shauni Griffiths in the front line.
Midfield included a first starting appearance for Molly Smith who, playing alongside Bethany and Charlie kept the middle of the park fairly safely locked-up enabling Shauni, Nicha and Emily Vaughan to play very much a ‘roam-where-you like’ type of game. (ed: At least that’s how I saw it).
Shauni was unlucky on two occasions to have goals disallowed for off-side and for the most part, once the ball was delivered to her feet or close-by she was more than able to take on two or three Aylesford defenders.
On nine minutes a great cross by Bethany was needing just the deftest of touches, but the defenders did just enough to keep Shauni out.
On 13 minutes the first goal arrived. Shauni did well to keep a searching cross ball from going out of play and passed it back to Gabby who sent over a dangerous cross which Molly headed on for Emily Vaughan to seize on and fire the ball past the keeper.
Two minutes later and Darts nearly increased their lead with a terrific shot from Charlie being saved by the goalie at full stretch.
On 24 minutes Darts second goal did come, after an excellent pass from Bethany found Shauni who then placed an accurate cross into the box and Nicha was there to score from close in. 2-0
HT 2-0
Two minutes into the second half and a great move forward by Chana, always looking to play that penetrating pass, saw the Aylesford defence open up in front of her and powered in a great shot from outside the area. The goalie scrambled across to her right and was relieved to see it pass, just a few inches wide of the post.
After 58 minutes a shot from Charlie struck an Aylesford arm and from the resultant penalty kick Nicha increased the lead to 3-0, putting the result now out of reach of Aylesford.
It was by now one-way traffic and Xayla who had replaced Shauni on the right wing got a beautiful ball into the area for Nicha who was unceremoniously brought down for a penalty and was duly put away by Nicha. With this goal Nicha completed her hat-trick and Darts’ fourth. That was in the 65th minute.
Chana then had another great shot which was flying for the top right-hand corner but curved inches away at the last second.
In the 72nd minute, Lizzie secured Darts’ fifth goal with a snap-shot from just inside the area which rounded off the scoring.
FT 5-0
SUMMARY:
Conditions were cold but a comprehensive win for the Darts saw them start the second-half of the season’s campaign on a high. This saw Darts safely through to the last eight of the competition, and with a 3-0 lead after 58 minutes this gave Darts plenty of opportunity in using all five subs giving everyone much-welcomed game-time. I’m sure Nicha enjoyed that. Hitting a hat-trick is always special but in the first game after a lay-off of a few weeks she certainly knew how to celebrate the fact. “Well done Nicha!” And well done to the whole Dartford FC Women squad.
Report by Tony Brown
Photos by Taur Everard & ABcVideo