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Dartford should have been out of sight against Cheshunt – long before teenager George Whitefield’s wondergoal on Saturday.
That’s the verdict of assistant boss Roland Edge as the Darts collected a first Isthmian Premier home win since August and their first league success in eight games on Saturday.
“A good victory, it should have been a lot easier if I’m honest, without being disrespectful to the opposition,” said Edge.
“We created great chances, their keeper has made some excellent saves – as well as our keeper did later on – but I thought we created enough chances in the first half to probably be 3-0 up and I’m not being greedy in saying that.
“Our defence and our team stood up to the test and we got the three points.”
On defender Whitefield’s stunning 30-yard winner, Edge claimed it was only Dartford boss Ady Pennock who wanted the centre-back to take the shot on.
“The gaffer said he’s the only person that says ‘strike’, everyone is saying play it wide, play it safe, play it back to the keeper!” said Edge.
“Fair play to George, this is the beauty of our youth team that have made the step up. They’ve all got a hunger and a desire to learn. They’re willing to fight for the club.
“George has put his head on everything at the back and, to be honest, even George himself probably expects that to go through the Dartford tunnel, I think he was going to pay a toll!
“But the minute he let goes, you know it’s in, the keeper wasn’t saving that and it was still going when it hit the net.”
So is that the best Dartford have played in a while?
“No,” responded Edge. “Amazingly enough, you look at the league and think ‘what’s going on here’ but we’ve been good in a lot of games and not necessarily taken our chances.
“I know that’s a normal thing you hear from managers but we haven’t, and then we’ve been let down by bad decisions by either players or officials.
Read more: Isthmian League round-up
“You’ve got to battle on and we’ve done that. We were solid, I liked our first half, second half I liked it in a different way as we stuck together.
“If you’re a neutral and you watch that game then you’d say Dartford should have won that game, and won it a bit more comfortably.”
