AT THE end of arguably the finest night in the near six-year history of Dartford‘s Princes Park home, it was appropriate that the locals should leave singing”God Save The Queen”.
As is often the case when Newport County and Wrexham go on their Blue Square Bet Premier travels, the British national anthem, that which caused so much debate with silent Welsh Olympic footballers, was sung loud and proud by the victorious Englishmen.
The club from England’s garden had torn a strip off the league leaders, just as one might expect our gracious Queen to have done to the most playful prince of all when he returned from Las Vegas.
Don’t let the choice of song give off a feeling of xenophobia. Personally, I love going to games in which the two Welsh clubs are involved, hearing several hundred fans belting out the principality’s own anthem, Land of My Fathers. It makes the neck hairs stand to attention like Captain Harry Wales on a work day, and rest assured it will be sung with pride when the Darts cross the border to Rodney Parade later in the season, and hopefully when I make my first visit in the coming weeks.
This, however, was my first trip to the eco-friendly 7.5 million pound stadium since playing there for Ware towards the end of Dartford’s 2007-08 Ryman Division One North championship campaign.
History
If you think tha’s a long way for the club to have come in four years, it’s even longer from where they stood when I played against them for Bracknell Town in a 2004 pre-season friendly at Gravesend, the last of their three groundshare homes.
Further still since they reformed in the Kent League in 1993, months after the old club went bust and eight years after they had finished third in the Conference with current manager Tony Burman as top scorer.
Tuesday’s programme proudly stated: ?It is very sweet to see the Darts higher in the table than such teams as Cambridge, Mansfield, Stockport and Lincoln, some of whom were playing at the third level of? English football when we were losing to the likes of Darenth Heathside and Crockenhill!
The Dartford story is similar to that of their midweek visitors, minus the Football League history.
They, like Newport, hope that can be part of their future after restarting at the bottom in exile, four years after their visitors did so in the Hellenic League, and working their way back up to the top of Non-League Pyramid.
They should have been out of the game once the division’s joint-top scorer, Aaron O’Connor, had cancelled out Harry? Crawford’s opener.
But the Darts stuck in there, marshalled by the evergreen Mark Arber at centre-half, showing the spirit that saw them push Woking all the way in Conference South last term.
And when Danny Crow gave away cheap possession in injury-time, they capitalised with left-back Richard Rose running 70 yards to collect Elliot Bradbrook’s pass and fire home a stunning winner.
After zero points from their first three games, the Darts had suddenly won four in ten days to jump to eighth place, with more famous ex-92 Club members in reach, like Luton and Wrexham.
Atmosphere
With yesterday’s trip to Gateshead and successive home Saturday dates with Hereford and the other Welshmen to come, Burman knew how important three points were in breeding confidence.
They have had bigger gates than the season’s best of 1,446 that witnessed this game, but few will have been played out to a better atmosphere.
Beaming Burman, told earlier in the day by daughter Carly that he is to become a grandfather for the first time, said: “It was loud and that’s good, it’s what we want here.
?Newport are what I call one of the elite clubs in this league, and we are going to play a few of them in the next few weeks. It’s a little marker for us to where we might have to be.
?They’ve been in this league for a little while now, and we are just glad that we’ve come in and had a go. We were the big boys last year and people were coming here to turn us over. We are not now, but we just want to say that we are a good side.”?
He also knows how important the crowd can be. ?We are going to have some bad days,” he warned. ?I hope they are not real bad days, but if they are, they are, and we’ve just got to stick together.”
They were certainly that at quarter-to-ten on Tuesday night, when the summer sound synonymous with golden nights at a stadium 16 miles away in Stratford rang out.
All together now: ?God Save…”
Go Top Heavy And You Won’t Buckle
IT’S goals that win games, as Luton boss Paul Buckle told us at Kenilworth Road last Saturday, and that message has struck a chord with most managers in the BSBP this season.
While Liverpool’s transfer window tactics have left them woefully short at the top of the English game, in the fifth tier there are more strikers on show than on a picket line.
Forest Green chairman Dale Vince spoke in the summer of the need for six forwards, and he gave manager Dave Hockaday the backing to get them in. It’s paid off with Rovers shooting to the top before yesterday’s trip to Grimsby, while Newport’s firing fivesome haven’t done badly either.
Cambridge boss Jez George has half-a-dozen to choose from, including Robbie Willmott, while Wrexham and Mansfield have five and Grimsby four.
As Buckle’s Hatters triumphed last week with Andre Gray, Scott Rendell and Stuart Fleetwood all on target as Jon Shaw sat in the stand, suspended, I was equally impressed with Macclesfield, despite the 4-1 reversal.
Steve King has Matthew Barnes-Homer, Waide Fairhurst, Rob Edmans, Amari Morgan-Smith and Chris Holroyd, the Preston loanee who told me: ?When you look back at who’s done well in the Conference, it’s been those teams that have had options in their squad, especially up front.
?When the injuries start coming, you’?ll see that the gaffer’s got a really strong squad together. We’ve got a real chance this year.”
They didn’t figure in my pre-season promotion reckoning, but Macc are on the attack and looking forward!
