Pre-Season Friendly
Princes Park, Dartford
Admission: £10.00
Programme: £2.50
Attendance: 2,800
Following my lunchtime game next door on the Community Pitch, I briefly went to grab some lunch from a local Co-op, before returning, in the rain, to the Princes Park complex for my first visit to the main stadium since 2009.
Tickets were available for purchase online, but not wishing to go through the hassle of giving all of my information to create an account, I chose to pay at the turnstile instead, and on entering the ground, a very pleasant surprise was that a programme was available for purchase, covering Dartford's game against Gillingham, as well as today's fixture. Pricnes Park is a very sensibly sized ground, with a modern, symmetric design. With continuous covering wrapping right around the stadium, six rows of terrace steps continue virtually uninterrupted around three sides of the ground, while the remaining length has four rows of seating from corner to corner, with a bar available above to the rear. An unusual feature of the ground is the presence of the "Wooden Fan" on one length, standing five and a half metres tall at the back of the terrace steps with his arms outstretched above, from a distance appearing to hold the roof up.
Dartford had a great season in the National League South last season, finishing as runners up, but lost in the play-off semi-finals at home on penalties against St Albans City. Charlton finished yet another roller-coaster season in tenth place in League One, disappointing overall, but with how much of the season played out, a top ten finish could be considered a degree of success. And even though a much needed takevoer has been taking forever to be completed, a degree of optimism is emerging amongst the Charlton fan base, resigning centre back Michael Hector, signing keeper Harry Isted, who had a very successful loan spell at Barnsley in the second half of last season, Lloyd Jones, who was Cambridge United's player of the season last season, and most impressively striker Alfie May, scorer of 20 goals for Cheltenham Town last season. Unfortunately, neither Jones nor May would play today, and Charlton would field two separate teams in both halves, with a fair contingent of youngsters in both teams.
Brief video highlights can be viewed by clicking here, while a match report from the official Charlton website can be viewed by clicking here, also copied and pasted below.
Charlton claimed a second pre-season win in as many friendlies on Saturday, beating Dartford 2-1 on an overcast afternoon in Kent.
Unlike last week at Welling United, the teams played out a cagey first half. The Darts went close on 11 minutes when striker Alex Wall tried an overhead kick from a Max Statham cross, which Harry Isted tipped round the post.
Charlton soon grew into the game and twice went close through long-range efforts from Jack Payne - the first collected by goalkeeper Mitchell Beeney and the second flying just over.
Isted was called into action again just after the half-hour mark, this time beating away Marvin Herschel's shot at close quarters.
The Addicks’ second-half XI came out energised and, thanks to superb performances from wing-backs Nathan Asiimwe and Corey Blackett-Taylor, took the game to the hosts.
The deadlock was broken on 57 minutes when Blackett-Taylor turned his man inside and out before floating a teasing cross the back post, where Asiimwe was on hand to head home.
Charlton and Asiimwe were celebrating again just three minutes later, when the academy graduate scored once more. Conor McGrandles played a perfect ball inside the Dartford defence for the youngster, who sidestepped another defender and fired back across goal.
Five minutes later, Dartford’s Brandon Barzey was instrumental in his side pulling one back, getting to the byline and pulling back for Lewis Manor, who could not miss from a yard out and the Darts were back in the game.
But less than 10 minutes later, the hosts' attempts to get an equaliser took a massive blow when captain Paul Rooney was shown a straight red after throwing an arm at McGrandles.
The dismissal did not stop Dartford mounting one last bid, and the hosts would have been level had it not been for a fantastic save from Ashley Maynard-Brewer to deny Joe Rabbetts from six yards out.
That proved to be the last action in an engaging game, with Dean Holden’s side now looking forward to their pre-season tour to Spain.
Charlton (first half): Isted; Bakrin, Hector, Elerewe; Egbo, Dobson (c), Anderson, Payne, Chin; Jaiyesimi, Campbell
Charlton (second half): Maynard-Brewer; Mitchell, Ness, Roddy; Asiimwe, Henry, McGrandles, Fraser, Blackett-Taylor; Kirk, Kanu
Unused sub: Santos
Goals: Asiimwe 57, 60
Attendance: 2,800
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