Dartford give good account of themselves in friendlies against Crystal Palace and Gillingham
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Dartford travel to Metropolitan
Police on Saturday with their heads held high after two competitive
pre-season tests against League 1 opposition.
The Darts followed up Saturday’s friendly against Norwich with a
closely fought game against Gillingham on Tuesday night and
assistant boss Steve Mosely is now looking forward to getting down
to business.
Mosely said: "The league sides have
obviously spent a lot more time training and you don’t tend to see
too much of the ball but to score four good goals has been a good
plus for us.
"Pre-season has gone well so far
but those two games are for fitness and bringing a bit of
reputation to the club. Now we start some of the games where teams
are going to be at the same level as what we’re going to be at and
we can judge where we are compared to them."
The Darts were missing a number of
key players, including forwards Jay May, Rob Haworth, Allan Tait
and Lee Noble but after going 2-0 down, goals from former
Gillingham youngster Adam Burchell (pictured) and defender Adam
Flanagan levelled it up going into the break.
Gillingham added two more goals to
win 4-2 in front of another sizeable crowd of just over 1,000 but
it was Burchell who stole the show, as he impressed against his
former club and walked away with the man-of-the-match accolade.
Mosely said: "Playing against his
old club he did really well as he did when he came on against
Norwich. It’s about consistency but there is potential there.
"He has pushed himself in the
reckoning but the problem is he has a suspension coming up."
Burchell’s lengthy suspension kicks
in at the start of September and lasts around three months. He was
sent-off twice for Dartford’s reserve side last season and also
faced a disciplinary charge for abuse to a match official.
Cody McDonald returned to
Princes Park on Saturday with League 1 side Norwich and helped them
to a big pre-season victory over his former club on Saturday.
The Canaries netted seven times
against their Ryman League, Premier Division hosts, who sold
McDonald to the Carrow Road club midway through last season.
McDonald came on as a substitute and
played the final 20 minutes and at that stage, Dartford, who had
only recently got back into pre-season training, were losing
5-2.
The ex-Darts striker's introduction
was warmly received by the Princes Park crowd and he won a penalty
which Jamie Cureton scored from, despite his initial shot being
saved by keeper Sam Mott.
McDonald then set up Cureton for the
final goal of the game.
Wednesday, July 15 2009
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