After Tuesday’s 5-1 defeat against Wrexham, Tony Burman called for an improved performance from his players, and for 65 minutes he got the response he desired.

The game changed with a seemingly harsh red card for Lee Noble that blunted the pressure that Dartford were building on Gateshead, and the visitors snatched the three points through James Brown’s towering header with two minutes of normal time remaining to condemn the Darts to their sixth consecutive defeat.

The Dartford manager admitted “It’s cruel.  We’ve set our store out to do what we wanted to do against a very good side. I’ve said before that they were the best we’ve played this season when we were up at Gateshead and we knew they could pass the ball around.”

“I thought we were going alright, but to lose that way is hard. You do run the risk, but getting a player sent off when you’re going ok is devastating.”

“It was a great ball into the box and their centre forward has attacked it. Was it a foul? I don’t know, but I’d be happy if my centre forward attacked a ball like that.”

“With Lee (Noble), I feel the ref has gone straight to his red card. I know the guy has got caught on the face, but there was no intent.”

“He hasn’t gone up and hit him or elbowed him, it was a hand waving about and it’s made contact with his face.  It’s changed the game.”

“The first glimpse I’ve got on a small screen shows me the referee got it wrong.  Lee’s not tackled or elbowed someone.  The ref has said he hit him (Gateshead’s Jamie Chandler) in the face, but Lee’s come through from losing a tackle, changed direction and caught the guy, but there is no intent.  I’ve seen it and intent just doesn’t exist.”

“I’ll look at it again on a big screen and speak to the referee as it has changed the game when we were working very hard against a team that kept the ball and passed it well.  We were creating opportunities to win the ball back and we had more half chances than chances.”

“We’re having a real difficult period at the moment, but the crowd is really with us.  Yes, there are a few comments flying about, but against Wrexham and again today the crowd was right behind us.  We know it’s tough, today is one of those where we could have got a point out of it but we’ve lost the game in the last two minutes and had a really poor refereeing decision.”

Dartford’s lack of confidence, from their worst run of results for six years, was obvious in the early stages and Gateshead dominated all over the pitch.  Too often Dartford players were standing off from challenging, allowing their opponents to move the ball round at will.  As early as the fourth minute, a flowing move from John Oster, Craig Baxter and Colin Larkin found Josh Walker, who was left unattended in the middle of the Dartford area, but his header was directed wide of the goal.

Baxter was allowed room to fire at goal, but his shot slid over the angle of post and bar, while in reply, Dartford’s only route out was via a long ball to Adam Birchall, who worked relentlessly between centrebacks James Curtis and Ben Clark.  Even when Dartford could retain the ball long enough to get a cross delivered, it always seemed to be Curtis rising highest to clear.

England C international James Marwood had Gateshead’s next two chances, but fired both at new arrival Phil Smith, on loan from Portsmouth, before Dartford finally managed to put a passing move together.  Lee Noble and Elliot Bradbrook worked the ball out to Danny Harris on the right wing.  Harris found Birchall inside the area, who quickly turned Clark, his marker, but curled his shot across the face of goal.

Smith showed his courage, diving at the feet of Walker from an Oster cross and Dartford almost capitalised on the break.  Nathan Collier, playing at right-back, overlapped Harris on a lung-bursting sprint before playing the ball into the middle.  Birchall found a yard of space to sweep the ball towards the right corner, only for Adam Bartlett to plunge full length to keep the scores level.

Ben Clark picked up the game’s first caution for a cynical foul on Noble, as the midfielder was leading a counter-attack.  From the resulting free kick, Dave Martin, another new loanee who was returning after six years away in the Football League, showed he still had a delicate touch, planting a ball onto Bradbrook’s head, but Bartlett made a comfortable save.

Although they couldn’t argue that Gateshead had created the better chances, Dartford were showing that when they got the ball down and play football, they were holding a threat.  Early in the second half both Martin and Lee Burns saw shots fly over, as the Darts started to apply pressure to, and force mistakes from the ‘Heed defence.

The game changed though after 65 minutes as Lee Noble saw red for a seemingly innocuous event.  Noble burst through the midfield and having been challenged by Clark, fell away from the defender and in the next moment Jamie Chandler fell to the ground holding his face.  Mr Wigglesworth immediately produced the red card and although he received a raucous reception from the home fans, Chandler had to leave the field for treatment and a new shirt.

That incident released the pressure that Dartford had been building, and Marwood fired a volley straight at Smith following cross from Larkin from the right.  Smith also had to be brave again from Gateshead’s next corner, blocking a point-blank effort from Baxter.

With just two minutes of normal time remaining, Gateshead claimed the win with an unstoppable header from substitute James Brown that left Connor Essam and Smith helpless.  Lewis Sirrell’s swinging cross gave Brown the run on Essam, and the Gateshead forward climbed highest to place his header in the right corner.

Tony Burman did have a positive message for the supporters though, adding “The expectation here can be a problem and there’s a few people who haven’t known bad times since we’ve been here at Princes, as it has been almost all good.  When you’re winning it’s all great together, but losing is the same.  You can get in a rut and we were very unfortunate not to break it today. We’re on a dreadful run, but with a performance and effort like that, keep your heads up and the results will come.”

DARTFORD: Phil Smith, Nathan Collier, Tyrone Sterling, Kenny Clark, Connor Essam, Lee Burns, Lee Noble, Elliot Bradbrook, Danny Harris, Dave Martin, Adam Birchall (Jason Prior 86)

Subs not used: Max Cornhill, Mat Mitchell-King, Tommy Forecast, Alex Woodyard

Yellow cards: Connor Essam 85, Dave Martin 90
Red card: Lee Noble 65

GATESHEAD: Adam Bartlett, Craig Baxter, Lewis Sirrell, James Curtis, Ben Clark, Jamie Chandler (Marcus Maddison 75), Phil Turnbull, John Oster, Colin Larkin, James Marwood, Josh Walker (James Brown 75)

Subs not used: Carl Magnay, Micky Cummins, Joe Tait

Goal: James Brown 88

Yellow cards: Kenny Clark 32

Attendance: 975
Referee: Mr Richard Wigglesworth
Assistants: Mr Adrian Piggott and Mr Neil West
4th official: Mr Jason Richardson