Alfred Bawling’s goal with twenty seconds, plus stoppage time, remaining gave Haringey Borough a shock victory at Dartford.
The opening fifteen minutes were pretty even before Dartford enjoyed the better of the remainder of the first half. However, they lost their way in the second half and Haringey looked the more threatening as the game wore on and completed the giant killing with their late winner.
Tom Bonner was unable to guide home an early free kick for Dartford before Haringey’s Roman Michael-Percil made space for himself to get a shot away but couldn’t hit the target.
Sami Bessadi turned and hit his shot cleanly, but straight into the midriff of Craig King then at the other end the Dartford front two of Elliott Romain and Moussa Bakayoko combined to set up Luke Allen but his effort flew well over.
Allen then turned creator with a deep cross that found new signing Nassim L’Ghoul but his close range header, from a tight angle, was beaten away by goalkeeper Jonathan Miles.
Jack Jebb then worked himself into a good position taking a short corner and getting it back but his daisy-cutter from twenty yards was well held by Miles.
Another good Dartford move brought about another opening for Dartford when Bakayoko made a good run across goal before finding the overlapping Craig Braham-Barrett. His cross picked out Jacob Berkeley-Agyepong whose scissor-kick volley drew another save out of the Haringey goalkeeper.
Jebb’s free kick found Bonner but his header was saved easily by Miles and the Haringey custodian was again called into action before the break when he came out and cleared and then had to scramble back to save when it came to Berkeley-Agyepong.
After the interval, Allen’s free kick was just two strong for Connor Essam before Haringey came close when David Olufemi found Michael-Percil with a low cross but his shot was deflected into the side netting.
Bawling hit a first time volley wide after Dartford struggled to clear Michael O’Donoghue’s cross and another partial clearance fell into the path of Jorge Djassi Sambu and his shot from twenty five yards flew just beyond the far post.
Berkeley-Agyepong’s angled free kick found Romain but he shot wide of the near post then Bakayoko headed over from L’Ghoul’s corner.
Both Bakayoko and L’Ghoul were then substituted with Jack Barham and Ky Marsh-Brown replacing them. The latter shot wide soon after as he attempted a curler inside the far post.
Chances then dried up for Dartford and Haringey started to get joy down the left flank. A long raking pass found O’Donoghue open down that wing. He measured his cross and picked out Mekhi Leacock-McLeod and his shot was saved brilliantly by King.
A couple of other attacks down that wing came to nothing before, with penalties looming, Leacock-McLeod sent Michael-Percil away and his inviting cross was headed home from close range by a joyful Bawling.
Three minutes later, the final whistle signalled the start of Haringey’s celebrations.
Dartford: King Wynter, Braham-Barrett, Jebb (Barnum-Bobb 40), Essam, Bonner, Berkeley-Agyepong, Allen, Romain, Bakayoko (Marsh-Brown 64), L’Ghoul (Barham 64).
Subs not used: Wady, Ijaha, McCallum, Hill.
Goalscorers: None
Yellow cards: King, Romain
Red cards: None
Haringey Borough: Miles, Olufemi, M. O’Donoghue, Richards, Vilcu, Sambu, Michael-Percil (Ismail 90+), Aresti, J. O’Donogue (Leacock-McLeod 71), Bessadi, Bawling.
Subs not used: McDonald, Mitchell, Dombaxe, Akindayini, Leblond.
Goalscorers: Bawling (90)
Yellow cards: Aresti, Olufemi, Sambu
Red cards: None
Referee: Paul Johnson
Assistants: Harry Tarrant and Jorden Gibson
4th Official: Daniel Doyle
Images courtesy of Dave Budden