The eagerly awaited first meeting between Dartford and Welling United in the Skrill Premier was played on a quagmire of a pitch, with the visitors the happier that it passed a morning inspection.
Unsurprisingly, the game got off to a cagey start as the two teams tested each other out and it was the hosts who carved out the first opening.
Dave Martin sprung the offside trap but Lee Butcher beat out his near post drive as far as Elliot Bradbrook who fired over from 25 yards.
Mat Mitchel-King was quick to block a Ross Lafayette shot for Welling but it was Dartford who took the lead just before the half hour mark.
Once again, Martin was the instigator as he burst down the left wing and hit a powerful shot that Butcher failed to hold and Lee Burns followed up to finish from close range.
As a mostly low tempo first half came to a close, Nathan Collier got through the Welling defence but saw his powerful effort turned away by Butcher.
Five minutes into the second period, Dartford won the first corner of the match, quickly followed by the second but nothing came of either.
Harry Beautyman slung in a cross that Tyrone Sterling did well to head off Luis Cumbers’ head. Cumbers’ first start for over a year was ended a few minutes later when replaced by Kurtis Guthrie who had been late in arriving at the ground having flown in from his family home in Jersey in the morning.
Martin’s deep cross caused confusion in the Welling defence but also in the Dartford attack as Collier and Jim Stevenson left it for each other.
Guthrie then registered Welling’s first attempt on target but Alan Julian made a comfortable save. Doug Bergqvist’s foul resulted in him becoming Welling’s second player to be booked, Jamie Day had been cautioned in the first half for a foul. Adam Birchall took the free kick but blasted it straight into the wall.
Joe Healy caused Julian problems with a cross that he was happy to palm away and then De’Reece Vanderhyde’s high centre directly out of the sun was turned over gratefully by the Dartford stopper.
Appearing to sense Dartford’s nervousness at not being able to increase their lead, Welling upped the tempo and won a series of corners.
It came as no surprise when Welling equalised from one when Guthrie flicked on Day’s 73rd corner. The ball stuck in a muddy patch in the middle of the penalty area and when a defender failed to clear, Ross Lafayette showed his goal-scoring instincts by smashing the ball home.
Bergqvist’s header from another Day corner was saved by Julian as Welling searched for the winner and it came with eleven minutes remaining.
Failure to clear cost Dartford dear and Healy sent a cross beyond the Darts defence for Guthrie to rise and head back across goal and inside the far post.
Although they fashioned a couple of half chances, Birchall blazed one wide before Bradbrook volleyed straight at Butcher.
Darts manager Tony Burman was disappointed with how his team approached the second half. “In the majority of the game we had something to aim for. We got the first goal but needed a second goal.”
“The mentality of the team at the moment is that once you let in one goal you very soon let in another. The second half, we didn’t get the ball in the area we wanted them to get it into.”
Wings boss Day was far more upbeat “We knew we needed to get a result today and it ended with the boys digging in and getting a result. I thought in the second half only one team was going to win it.”
Dartford: Julian, Sterling, Clark, Cornhill (Kamara 80), Bradbrook, Mitchel-King, Collier (Scantlebury 90), Birchall, Martin, Burns, Stevenson (Woodyard 83).
Unused substitutes: Ibrahim, Vint.
Welling United: Butcher, Vanderhyde, Cargill (McLaren 68), Day, Franks, Bergqvist, Beautyman (Bassele 75), Clarke, Cumbers (Guthrie 54), Lafayette, Healy.
Unused substitutes: Turner, Joe Obersteller.
Referee: Nicholas Kinseley
Attendance: 1.759
Dartford star man: Dave Martin
Welling star man: Kurtis Guthrie
Pictures supplied by Dave Budden.