Dartford 2-4 Lincoln City

Over the last week cup fever has swept across Lincoln City. Ever since the draw with Mansfield in round two, and the following news that the winners of the replay with face Liverpool , City fans seem to have talked about little else. On Tuesday night however the Imps were brought crashing back down to earth as Woking arrived at Sincil Bank and took away all three points with comparative ease. They notched a penalty after 5 minutes and that was that. Nobody was really surprised that they added a second in the second half as the Imps never looked like scoring. A huge slice of reality pie had been dished out to fans and more importantly to players.

Next up for the Imps was a trip to the BSP surprise package this season; Dartford FC. Before the match the Darts sat in 5^th place in the division. This was going to be a real test for the Imps and if they were to get anything out of the match they would need to be at the top of their game and totally focused on the match and not be thinking of Mansfield/Liverpool.

It’s a while since we have done a long distance away day with City and with this one being pencilled in as a must do a few weeks ago, it was one that we were all looking forward to, alas Lee had yet another cock and bull excuse to add to his ever growing list of reasons for missing games. We will find out the real reason why he missed the game Wednesday. That is if he makes it....we shall see.  After a quick sausage sandwich and the fantastic news that England were on the brink of another fantastic test match win in India. We left for Dartford at just gone 9.45am.

The trip down the A1 was the hardly the most inspiring of journeys that will a man will ever undertake and food options on the way down were a little limited but at least the traffic was kind. Just outside of Stansted airport we made a pit stop at a service station.  To me service stations are only really good for relieving your bladder and bowel. Yes you can get a coffee or something to eat, but only if you are prepared to take out a second mortgage to pay for it. I was tempted to get a stupid Christmas hat for the away game but I had a word with myself and refrained from doing so. They only other thing I would have been interesting in buying would have been a local paper but I was unable to locate one. I was tempted to buy Thursday’s issue of USA Today but decided against it.  Baz however went for a trendy Starbucks coffee at a price of £3.50. Yes you do read that correctly £3.50 for a cup of coffee. I can say that I have never bought a coffee in a Starbucks/Costa whichever coffee chain, nothing to do with the recent taxpaying scandal; I just don’t see how anybody can pay over £3 for a cup of coffee when you can watch red hot Central Midlands League football for the same price! And in some cases you get a free programme for your money!! Anyway after waiting for the staff to make the thing and for to Baz sup it with pinkie extended in that arty farty way that only he can, we were on our merry way. We did see a handful of other Imps milling around and as we pulled out of the services the Imps supporters coach pulled in so it looked like we would have a decent following at the match. Amazing what a few wins does for a club.

To get to Dartford you have to go over the Dartford bridge (strange that) going onto the bridge you have the standard three lanes but there are about 18 toll booths. Once on the other side the road again goes back into three lanes which means you see quite a lot of wacky races style driving manoeuvres  as everybody battles to get back in lane. Once over the bridge you pass into Kent (or the garden of England as it seems to be known) and it’s only another ten minutes or so to the ground. A pretty simple journey overall and we rocked up at the Dartford FC car park at just after 1.00pm.

Dartford’s ground is a new build and it seems to be part of a regeneration project, as there appears to have been quite a bit of building going off in the area around the stadium. There doesn’t appear to been any pubs around the ground but Kent Police had kindly “Tweeted” during the week that there was a bar at the away end for Lincoln supporters to use so we had no worries over getting a beer or three. As we had plenty of time, we had a stroll around the ground and my impressions of the ground were very positive. New builds aren’t everybody’s cup of tea but the club have done a cracking job with this and managed to avoid making it look bland. The reception area looks smart, as does the balcony area that overlooks the outside of the ground. I would imagine that this is a cracking area to sink a couple of pints before a game at the start/end of the season but maybe not so much at a game in the middle of December. From here we strolled round to the club shop and I must say it is certainly one of the better ones in the division and has a nice range of stuff on sale. The match day programme was on sale for £2.50 and was an above average production with plenty of stuff to read in it with a decent section on the away side.

After learning that the bar for away fans is inside the ground we made our way round to the away turnstiles, parted with our hard earned cash, and entered the ground. As we got into the ground a friendly steward directed us to the bar which is on your left hand side as you enter the ground. 

One thing that we have discovered in the year and a half that we have been playing in this division is there seems to be two very different ways clubs treat away fans. Most of the traditional non league sides seem to treat a visiting former league side as if they are a group of Viking invaders and as such don’t want them drinking in their smart clubhouses. Yes you get the odd one welcoming you, like Southport but more often than not clubs such as Tamworth, Braintree, and Woking etc aren’t interested in the custom of fans from the larger clubs. With this in mind it’s so refreshing to see Dartford providing a great bar for away fans to have a few pints before the game. The bar is heated, quite spacious, and has a large screen showing the day’s early kick off.  Not only did they provide this but a group of Dartford officials made time to come in and welcome the City fans and have a quick chat about all things football. The chairman explained to us that this was the first time the bar had been used and asked us what we thought of it. It’s the little things like this that gives off such a positive image of a football club and if more clubs were this welcoming and friendly, the game would be so much better for all of us.  Just for the record City also welcome fans of all clubs in our club bar.

The chairman of Dartford Football club has a lot to be positive about at the moment as the club has had a fantastic time over the past few years. In 2007/08 they started their rise when the club won the Ryman League division One North (the same level that Lincoln United play at). Two seasons later in 09/10 the club won the Ryman Premier Division championship. In 2011/12 the club won its third promotion in 5 years when they won the Blue Square bet Southern playoffs with a victory over Welling United.  The club’s good momentum has continued this season and they have surprised many with their great start to the season. Before kick off the Darts sat in 5^th place in the division seven points ahead of Lincoln. And although Dartford have hit a sticky patch recently, Lincoln would still have to play very well to get anything out of the match.

We finished our pints and headed out into the stadium. In a way it reminds me a bit of Burton’s ground as you get three sides terraced with the main stand to our right with seats in it and a director’s area above it. Behind each goal was an identical terrace with a stretch of terracing to our left. In this stand about halfway down was a wooden man which forms part of the support structure for the stand. Again full marks to the club for building a ground that has character to it. The Imps normally get good support at matches in the south east and today was no exception. Given the FA cup run and it being nearly Christmas I did think that it could be a low turnout, but the Imps faithful turned out in good numbers and were out in force.

The major talking point for City fans was the amount of changes made to the line up. The major one being the decision to drop keeper Paul Farman and replace him with recently signed David Preece in goal. I had been “tipped off” about this happening in midweek  and I must say I felt very sorry for Jake Turner who has been reserve keeper all season and in my opinion should have been used in the trophy game and I felt should have been given a chance today. With Jamie Taylor suspended thanks to his last minute booking against Woking, Colin Larkin led the line for Lincoln.

Lincoln started the game attacking the goal that most of their supporters were gathered behind (we did have a small section of seating down the side as well) and we didn’t have to wait long for the first goal. Colin Larkin broke free on the right and won a corner. The delivery was first class and aimed at the near post. Dan Grey, up from the back, lost his marker headed the ball into the net from close range. It was a very well worked goal and a throwback to the John Beck era; the Imps now one up in seven minutes.  The Darts did seem a little rattled by that goal and never really got going in the first half. They did win a free kick on their next attack but they thankfully wasted it by blasting it straight at the City wall.

City’s second goal again came right out of the John Beck coaching manual. The Imps won a long throw which Dan Grey hurled into the box; the ball was flicked on by Tom Miller, and fell to Colin Larkin who made no mistake from six yards out. 24 minutes gone; Lincoln 2-0 up, and the home side all over the place.  The second goal was our signal to check out the food on offer with Baz going for a pie and myself checking out the cheeseburger. The burger was your standard offering at £3.20 and I will award it with a solid and standard 7/10. Baz seemed to be very impressed with the pie and said it was better than many he has had this season. The catering did seem to be very varied and had items such as sandwiches on the menu which makes a nice change. The jewel in the crown however was the fact that they sold cakes and Baz had wasted no time at all tucking into a slice of Bread and Butter pudding which he thoroughly enjoyed. I didn’t have a cake myself (watching my figure and all that) but I did sample the Bovril which was spot on.

Anyway back to matters on the pitch. Adam Smith has come in for a fair bit of stick from City fans in recent weeks, some justified some not in my opinion. On his day he is great but sometimes tries to take on one man to many. Today though I thought he was on his game and his cross in the 32^nd minutes, which Larkin got on the end of to head home, was as good as any I have seen this season.  3-0 to City and the game looked over. Dartford had looked ok on the ball and had knocked it around quite well but had looked all over the place at the back. What chances they did create were snuffed out by Grey and Miller at the heart of the Imps defence. In the middle of the park big Mo was running the show. The chap was badly missed Tuesday night and this game once again how important he is to the City midfield.

Unfortunately we also saw the not so good side of Adam Smith shortly afterwards. City mounted another attack which led to a great effort form Nicky Nicolau, which drew an equally fine save from the Darts goalkeeper as he got his finger tips to the ball to turn it round for what looked to be a corner. Unfortunately the ref had missed the save and signalled for a goal kick. This then led to Smith racing up to the ref and taking his protests too far and thus receiving a yellow card.  Over the course of a season players will pick up bookings here and there, some warranted some not so. I have no problems with bookings if players collect them trying to do the right thing and maybe mistiming a challenge or something, but collecting this sort of cheap booking is a real bugbear of mine. Quite why, when a side is 3-0 up away from home and playing well, he felt the need to gob off quite so much over a corner only he will know. What it did mean was he was treading a fine line for the rest of the game due to collecting a yellow that he could so easily have had avoided.

A minute before the halftime whistle City added a fourth.  The Imps were awarded a free kick just outside the area that Gary Mills struck well and drew a decent save from Bettinelli in the Darts goal. However the Dartford defence was slow to react and Colin Larkin was first to the ball and drove the ball home to complete his hat trick and put the makeshift Lincoln team 0-4 up.

HT 0-4

In the second half we got to see something that you don’t often see in football these days. For the first half the Dartford fans that had made most of the noise were behind the far goal which they were attacking.  For the second half they made their way round to our side of the pitch, to the end they were now attacking on the left hand side of the City supporters.  Even though they were 0-4 down they still made an impressive amount of noise, and really got behind their side.  This then led to a decent amount of banter between the two sets of fans which improved the atmosphere.  The home fans were given something to cheer about in the 50^th minute when Crawford collected the ball 20 yards out then fired a pin point low shot straight into the bottom hand corner giving Preece no chance at all. This really fired up the home side and they were the better side for pretty much all of the second half.  The Imps were indebted to Gary Mills as he hacked a Dartford effort of the line following a corner. City did try and get forward but all of a sudden we seemed rather nervous and the Darts upped their game. Nobody was really surprised when on 72 minutes Crawford notched his second of the game when he sprung the Imps offside trap and slotted home past the advancing Preece in the City goal. Squeaky bum time with just over 20 minutes to go.

This then lead the Dartford fans to break out a chat about us being Northern scum. I have always considered Lincs to be in the Midlands but there you go. Maybe geography isn’t a strong point in Dartford. Even though this song was a tad baffling, I must say they were one of the loudest sets of fans I have heard this season and they can be proud for the most part of how they got behind their side.  Dartford weren’t getting many shots away but the Imps were indebted to Preece whose reading of the game was first class (as you would expect from a keeper with 600 league games) and snuffed out many of the Dartford attacks by coming out and claiming the ball early. At the other end City were pretty much anonymous which added to the pressure on the City backline. Thankfully though, the Imps had enough in the tank and were pretty street wise at winding the clock down and collected the three points.

FT 2-4

I will take a 4-2 away win every day of the week and with so many changes to the line up it makes the win all the more impressive. Dartford are a good side (as their league position shows) and will have better days. Having initially questioned the inclusion of Preece in goal I have to eat humble pie today as he had a very good game and was a huge factor in Lincoln taking home the three points. I would say that only Larkin with his hat trick was ahead of him for the Imps man of the match award.

Sometimes when you travel around the country you visit clubs that you are not to fussed about if you don’t go back to again. This is not the case for Dartford. The club struck me as being very well run, treats both sets of fans well, and is really on the ball with everything. I think it’s safe to say it is definitely going on the “must do away games” list for next season. I wish them well for the rest of the season (apart from when the visit Lincoln of course!)

On the way back we had the “pleasure” of the 606 football phone in show with Robbie Savage and Johnny Vaughn on Radio 5 live which was dreadful from start to finish. It strikes me that to get on the Radio these days and talk about football you just need to be a pratt and talk utter tripe. Think I should get my CV in. If these muppets and many more like them can host a show.....