SDFL
Premier Division
Dartmouth AFC 5,
Kingskerswell and Chelston 0
Dartmouth AFC’s good run of form continued with their third win and fourth clean sheet in as many games.
Dartmouth were quickest out of the blocks and thought they had opened the scoring on two occasions, only to be denied by the offside flag both times.
The home side continued to press forward and scored the first goal with 20 minutes played.
A dangerous Dan Rankin delivery evaded everyone except for strike partner Jon Rimmer, who bundled in from close range.
Kingskerswell replied well and came close to equalising when a 25-yard free kick landed on the roof of the net.
Luckily for the home side the defence of Joe Kirby, Jordan Frost, Danny Rushe and Kevin Causley comfortably nullified the Kerswell threat.
In truth Dartmouth were the ones looking likely to score again and after Freddie Smith won his side a corner, the second goal of the game duly arrived.
A superb Causley delivery was met by the head of Danny Rushe for his seventh of the season.
Just before the interval the home side further increased their advantage through Rankin; Jake Self, Kirby and Robbie Chalk combined before the latter fed the ball to the prolific striker, who superbly laced home from all of 20 yards.
Dartmouth knew they had to match their first-half performance and they put the game to bed in the first five minutes of the second half.
First another Causley set piece caused havoc in the box and Chalk claimed the final touch for his second goal in three games, and almost immediately afterwards a brilliant run and pass from Ben Greeno allowed Rimmer to slot home for goal number five.
With nothing to lose, the away side pushed men forward and came close to scoring what would’ve been a deserved consolation goal, only being htwarted by some more solid goalkeeping from Sam Davies.
The hosts introduced Cameron Webb, Nick Rushe and player-manager Dan Lumley towards the end and their energy helped to cause Kingskerswell more problems.
Dartmouth missed a few chances to further increase the margin of victory, but this was a solid team performance.
The young side played some free flowing football and will be hoping to continue their surge up the table over the coming weeks.
Man of the match was awarded to Freddie Smith. This week the first team travel to Upton Athletic in the league, kick-off is at 2.30pm.
Dartmouth reserves went down 7-0 at Kingsteignton Athletic reserves. Tomorrow they will be hoping to record their first win of 2017 with a home match against basement side Teignmouth reserves. The action gets under way at 2.30 at Longcross.